INI ' ■' ' 



dB 



■Hi ' mm 



Hi 



lulu 



HUH 




Class. 
Book. 



H-JTic 






_! 






Copyright N°_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH 
REVOLUTION 



*&v$t 



SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH 
REVOLUTION 

A HISTORY 



BY 
WILLIAM B. GUTHRIE, Ph.D. 

INSTRUCTOR IN HISTORY, COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, 

LECTURER IN SOCIAL SCIENCE UNDER THE BOARD OF 

EDUCATION, AND ON FOREIGN INVESTMENTS IN 

THE SCHOOL OF COMMERCE AND FINANCE 

OF NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
1907 

All rights reserved 






LIBRARY of 00N6RESS 
Two Copies Received 
JUN 10 190/ 
n Copyright Entry 

( /class as XXcNo. 

COPY B. 



Copyright, 1907, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and elcctrotyped. Published June, 1907, 



J. S. Cushing & Co. —Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



Co 

MY FATHER AND SISTER 

THIS VOLUME 

IS AFFECTIONATELY 

INSCRIBED 



INTRODUCTION 

English literature has been singularly deficient 
in the history of social theory, and it is especially 
in the domain of social reform that this gap has 
been most evident. The present-day socialist move- 
ment has so engrossed the attention of most ob- 
servers that even the historical studies of this subject 
have been largely confined to the period since the 
French Revolution and particularly to that of so- 
called scientific socialism. The foreign literatures 
have paid slightly more attention to some of the 
movements from the close of the Middle Ages, but 
there is to-day no satisfactory general account in 
any language of socialist doctrines before the end 
of the eighteenth century. The study of Mr. Guthrie 
is therefore to be welcomed as the first comprehen- 
sive attempt to fill the gap. 

It will be easy for the reader to discern that the 
author is well fitted for the task which he has al- 
lotted to himself. A thorough familiarity with the 
foreign languages, a wide acquaintance with the 
details of the literature, and a grasp of the economic 
principles involved, — these are some of the charac- 
teristics of this little book. But there are especially 



viii INTRODUCTION 

two points to which it is well to call attention as the 
distinctive contributions of the work. 

The first is the recognition on the part of the 
author that social theory is the outgrowth of social 
conditions. The truth of this statement is nowa- 
days apt to be recognized in connection with ordinary 
economic doctrines ; but it has usually been assumed 
that the theories of the idealists, as pure figments of 
the imagination, are disconnected with actual life, 
and that all the Utopias are to be put in the category 
of ordinary fairy tales. A more attentive study of 
the facts, however, is sufficient to make us realize 
that, from the time of Plato down to the present, the 
social idealists have stood with one foot on terra 
ftrtna, and that even the Utopian dreams have had 
a more or less intimate connection with the sober 
facts of every-day life. Mr. Guthrie has been wise 
in realizing this and in endeavoring to trace the 
relation between the actual environment of the au- 
thor and the character of his doctrines. 

The second point is that the work is calculated to 
bring home to the ordinary reader the fact that social 
strivings and social ideals are by no means confined 
to the nineteenth or twentieth centuries. It is indeed 
true that the stupendous industrial changes of the 
last hundred years have brought to the fore a pecul- 
iarly intensive species of socialism which could not 
have previously existed where the economic phe- 



INTRODUCTION ix 

nomena themselves did not exist. We have, how- 
ever, been too long under the obsession of the idea 
that socialism is a distinctively modern movement. 
Even as a practical movement, socialism is by no 
means modern. Not to speak of the great, and 
still only partly studied, revolutions of classic an- 
tiquity, the history of mediaeval Europe abounds in 
more or less sharply defined socialistic tendencies. 
What is true of the socialist movement is no less 
true of the doctrine of social reform. Mr. Guthrie's 
book, as I understand it, is not an attempt to present 
an exhaustive account of this movement, for as such 
it would indeed be open to criticism as omitting the 
writers of the earlier Middle Ages. But as an en- 
deavor to give a general view of these doctrines 
from the time of More to the Revolution, it will un- 
doubtedly serve a useful purpose. As such it forms 
another contribution to the general history of eco- 
nomic and social ideas which still remains to be 
written, and which never can be adequately written 
until the way has been prepared by monographs of 
which the present is a fitting type. 

EDWIN R. A. SELIGMAN. 

Columbia University, 
May, 1907, 



PREFACE 

One of the principal propositions maintained in 
this study is that many of the ideas of modern so- 
cialism, in its varied forms, were suggested more or 
less clearly, before the French Revolution, either in 
the writings of scholars or in the activities of the 
organized society of the period. The attempt is here 
made, therefore, to gather up and to systematize the 
early ideas and ideals from the most important 
sources, in order to ascertain what debt the present 
owes the past in this field of social thought. It is 
also contended that the conditions favorable to the 
growth of a socialistic theory and practice show 
themselves, to some extent at least, when, after the 
Reformation, the mediaeval system gradually disap- 
peared. Conditions of that time are therefore briefly 
sketched and the larger features of that environment 
set forth in which it is claimed the protest and pro- 
paganda of socialism took rise. An effort is also 
made to discover and set forth any more general, 
abstract principles which from time to time appeared 
and may be considered the philosophic basis and 
the logical justification for socialism. Moreover, the 
writings here analyzed will be found to yield certain 



xii PREFACE 

very definite, concrete theories, which, it is main- 
tained, have been laid hold of by modern socialism 
and consciously or unconsciously appropriated. Fur- 
thermore, socialism, as here defined, will be treated, 
in both its method and matter, in its relation to social 
theory and interpretation. Attention will therefore 
be paid to the social ideas of the works examined 
as they form a part of, and take a place in, the de- 
velopment of social theories. 

No attempt is made to discuss all the works ap- 
pearing in the period here studied, which was rather 
prolific in this kind of literature; such an attempt 
would lead in this case, as it has done in so many 
cases, to a mere annotated bibliography. 1 Certain 
writers will be exhaustively studied in connection 
with those conditions giving rise to and aiding in 
the growth of their social ideas and ideals. 

No apology is offered for a study of the revolu- 
tionary social doctrines of a period when it may be 
supposed very little of importance was written or 
done. A justification, if such there be, must lie in 
the fact that during this age appeared many works 
of a peculiar nature, which have been largely ignored, 
at least by English students. It may be further 
objected that such writings are not strictly socialistic, 
at least as that term is understood to-day. In an- 

1 Von Mohl, "Die Geschichte und Literatur der Staatswissen- 
schaften," in Monographieen dargestellt, Erlangen, 1855-58, 3 vol. 



PREFACE xiii 

swer it may be said that this term as later defined 
comes nearer including this literature than any classi- 
fication yet made of it. It is held that close generic 
relationship exists between earlier and later social- 
istic doctrines; though direct descent is difficult to 
establish and in many instances must rest upon pre- 
sumptive evidence. 

The author wishes to make grateful acknowledg- 
ments to Professor John Bates Clark, under whose 
instruction serious interest was awakened in social 
subjects ; to Professor Edwin R. A. Seligman, under 
whom this work was carried on and whose counsel 
has been helpful at every point; and to Professor 
Henry R. Seager, whose kind suggestions made the 
way clearer. W. B. G. 

New York City, 
May, 1907. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

Introduction 1-53 

SECTION 

i. Bibliography 1 

2. Definitions 7 

3. Socialism and Kindred Systems 10 

4. Two Views of Society 17 

5. Principles Common to Socialists 21 

6. Academic Nature of Early Socialism .... 34 

7. Schools of Socialism 39 

8. Features of the Period Covered 43 

CHAPTER II 

THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST 
IN ENGLAND 

1. Thomas More the Central Figure 54 

2. Facts of his Life 54 

3. Historic Setting of " Utopia " 60 

4. The Emergence of the " Social Problem " . . .68 

5. Growth of Social Unrest 78 

6. Reactionary Nature of Socialism 82 

7. Decline of Asceticism 87 

CHAPTER III 

THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS 
MORE 

Part I 

1. General Considerations 92 

2. Divisions of " Utopia " 93 

xv 



cvi 


CONTENTS 




EC! 

3- 

4- 

5- 

6. 

7- 


ION 

Opposition to Enclosures .... 
Discussion of Evils of Monopoly 
Theory of Punishment .... 
Theory of War and Peace .... 
Attack on Private Property 


PAGE 

. 94 
. 100 
. 101 
. 105 
. 106 



Part II 

1. Main Principle of his Theory 107 

2. Communism of More 107 

3. Social Advantages of Communism . . . .110 

4. Theory of the Family 112 

5. Division of Labor the Basis of Social Organization . 113 

6. Length of the Labor Day 115 

7. Theory of Pleasure 121 

8. Theory of Social Organization 123 

9. Theory of Goods 126 

10. The City-State 128 

11. The Socialism of More 129 

CHAPTER IV 
LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 



1. Italy and Social Discussion 










. 132 


2. Place of Campanella in Literature 








■ 134 


3. Intellectual Environment . 








135 


4. Campanella, the Philosopher 










. 144 


5. His Conflict with Scholasticism 










H5 


6. His Relation to Plato . 










. 151 


7. Sources of his Theories 










152 


8. Jesuit Schemes . 










. 156 


9. Jesuit Theories of Marriage 










157 


10. His Debt to the Jesuits 










■ 159 


11. A Cosmopolitan Character . 










161 


12. Political Tendencies . 










164 



CONTENTS xvii 



CHAPTER V 
THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA 

SECTION PAGE 

i. An Artificial Scheme 166 

2. Labor Theory 167 

3. Cummunism of Campanella . . . . .168 

4. Theory of the Family 169 

5. Theory of Leisure 172 

6. Exchange in his Scheme . . . . . . 173 

7. Political Scheme 174 

8. Theory of Social Unity 176 

9. Source of Economic Motive 181 

10. Summary 182 

11. Relation of Bacon to Campanella . . . .183 

12. Theories of " New Atlantis " 184 

13. Followers of Campanella ...... 187 

14. Importance of Campanella 188 

CHAPTER VI 

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY RADICALISM 
IN FRANCE 

1. Biography of Morelly 195 

2. His Literary Activity 197 

3. Materialistic Tendencies of his Age .... 205 

4. Statements of Morelly's Contemporaries . . . 207 

5. " State of Nature " Concepts 211 

6. Absence of Historical Social Theories . . . 215 

7. An Age of Optimism 227 

8. Goodness-Theory of Man 232 

9. Theories defending Property 238 

10. Attacks upon Property 242 

CHAPTER VII 
THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 

1. Method of Morelly 248 

2. Theory of Innate Ideas . . . . . .251 



xviii CONTENTS 

SECTION PAGE 

3. Theory of Perfectibility 252 

4. Environment Theory 255 

5. Theory of Property 257 

6. Problem of Supplying Economic Motives . . . 261 

7. Type of Social Organization 263 

8. No Leisure Class ....... 264 

9. Theory of Distribution 265 

10. Theory of Social Unity 268 

11. Plan of Education 271 

12. Estimate of Morelly 273 

CHAPTER VIII 
REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 

1 . Emergence of Classes 276 

2. Growth of Definite Ideas 280 

3. Was there Socialism in the Revolution? . . . 281 

4. Theories of Boissel 282 

5. Attack on Property 284 

6. Theory of Distribution . 286 

7. Attitude toward Culture 286 

8. Relation to Morelly 288 

9. Babeuf — an Agitator . . . . . . 289 

10. The Theories of Saint-Just 297 

1 1 . Attacks on Institutions 299 

12. Teachings of Abbe* Mably ...... 300 

13. Linguet 304 

14. Barnave and his Theories 305 

CHAPTER IX 
General Conclusion . . . . . . . .314 

Index . . . 333 



SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH 
REVOLUTION 



SOCIALISM BEFORE THE 
FRENCH REVOLUTION: 

A HISTORY 

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION 

i. There are in this as in other fields of thought 
several kinds of literature to be examined. There is, 
it may be said, a relatively small amount of original 
material that was written with a conscious socialistic 
bias. Quantitatively the original sources setting forth 
the thought of the times are, as compared with those 
more modern, of rather slight importance. Under the 
head of those works here called more or less clearly 
socialistic, chief stress will be laid upon the "Utopia" 
of Sir Thomas More, "City of the Sun" by Thomas 
Campanella, Bacon's "New Atlantis," and Harring- 
ton's "Oceana"; while the "Basiliade" and the 
"Code de la Nature," both by Morelly, will mark the 
close of the period. 

There is, then, considerable literature from the pens 
of contemporaries which helps to an understanding of 



2 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

these earlier writers and their peculiar views. Among 
these may be cited by way of illustration Latimer's 
" Sermons/' Fitzherbert's "Farming," and the "Dia- 
logues" by Thomas Starkey. In the later period 
reference will be made to the writings of Rousseau, 
D'Holbach, Helvetius, and kindred authors, as from 
them inspiration and suggestions were drawn by their 
contemporaries and also by later socialistic writers. 

Amidst the vast amount of descriptive and historical 
literature bearing on socialism there is considerable 
touching this period. Much good historical work was 
done about the time of the downfall of the Utopian 
school, or from about 1840 on for a decade. Among 
such writers stand Pierre Leroux, 1 who wrote with a 
strong socialistic bias, and Louis Reybaud, 2 who was as 
severely critical as Leroux was sympathetic. Two 
German writers have also left monuments to their 
extensive historical research: Von Mohl in his "Ge- 
schichte der Literatur" and Lorenz von Stein, "Der 
Socialismus und Kommunismus des heutigen Frank- 
reichs." The historical investigation into the field of 
socialism begins with the opening of the historical 
school in economics, and had its development during 
the period when Roscher, Hildebrand, and Knies were 

1 Leroux, "De Tegalite," 1848; " De rhumanite"," etc., 2 v., 1845. 

2 Reybaud, " Etudes sur les re*formateurs ou socialistes mo- 
dernes." 1856. 



INTRODUCTION 3 

working in the field of historical economics. While 
the historical method was being applied to social study 
by the father of scientific socialism, Karl Marx, a new 
stimulus was given this historical writing by the stirring 
events of the early seventies, and for some years a con- 
siderable amount of literature appeared. In this work 
France leads, and the writings of such men as Adolphe 
Franck, 1 Benoit Malon, 2 and Janet 3 show an increas- 
ing interest in the historical development of socialism. 
Naturally the work in historical lines increased as 
original investigations and theorizing subsided. 

This period corresponds with the rise of the evolu- 
tionary philosophy, with the breakdown of Utopian 
socialism, with the birth of scientific socialism, and 
with the revolutionary movements in England and 
France. In the nineties another group of writers began 
the historical investigation of early socialism. This 
period was marked by the appearance of the work of 
a coterie of German writers, among whom may be 
mentioned Eduard Bernstein, Karl Kautsky, Paul 
Lafargue, and others. 4 Their extensive historical work 
did for the general field of socialism what this study 

1 " R6formateurs et publicistes de l'Europe." 1864-1893. 

2 " Histoire du socialisme depuis ses origines probables jusqu'a 
nos jours." 1879. 

3 " Les origines du socialisme contemporain." 1883. 

4 "Die Geschichte des Sozialismus in Einzelndarstellungen," von 
E. Bernstein, C. Hugo, K. Kautsky, P. Lafargue, Franz Mehring, 
G. Plechanow, 2 v., 1895. 



4 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

pretends to do for a limited portion. As Reybaud had 
much earlier done in France, these writers traced 
modern socialism back to its more remote origins. 
During the following years much careful work was 
done on the history of socialism. In this connection it 
is probably true that the best work has been done in 
France. French writers are apt to show less bias for 
or against than the Germans. They are broader and 
more serious in their treatment than the Americans, 
while they are free from the narrowness of the English 
students. Among the French writers of first impor- 
tance should certainly be mentioned Andrd Lichten- 
berger, 1 whose careful and exhaustive researches into 
French sources have done much to illuminate the 
Revolutionary period and to set the parties and their 
principles in their proper perspective. He has also 
gone back to the period before the Revolution and dis- 
cussed the theories contained in literature heretofore 
neglected, but which presents very much of interest to 
students of socialism in its historical development. The 
work of Frederick Engels in Germany deserves special 
mention for various reasons. In his " Socialism, 
Utopian and Scientific," he has done valuable service 
in explaining the origin of modern scientific socialism 

1 "Le Socialisme au XVIII C siecle." 1895. "Le Socialisme et 
la Revolution francaise; e*tudes sur les idees socialistes en France 
de 1789 a 1796." 1899. "Le Socialisme Utopique; etudes sur 
quelques precurseurs inconnus du Socialisme. " 1898. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

in its relation to German philosophy. 1 His close asso- 
ciation with Karl Marx for nearly half a century 
specially fitted him to speak authoritatively on his 
doctrines and also to be critic and editor of the works 
of his master. The very suggestive study made by 
Anton Menger, translated under the title "The Right 
to the Whole Produce of Labor/ ' should be consulted 
on the historical side, setting forth as it does the de- 
velopment of certain principles of modern socialism. 2 
Miss Peixotto deals with the historical evolution of cer- 
tain doctrines which have persisted to the present time, 
and by throwing the earlier theories into comparison 
with the later, she has made a most valuable contribu- 
tion to the literature of historical criticism. 3 Frederick 
Seebohm has published a good work allied to the 
present study, entitled "Oxford Reformers," which 
deals with the origin of social discontent in England 
in the period following the Reformation. 4 Of the 
literature discussing this particular period only a word 
will be said. Much has been written concerning the 

1 " Die Entwicklung des Socialismus von Utopie zur Wissen- 
schaft." Berlin, 1891. 

2 " Das Recht auf den vollen Arbeitsertrag, in geschichtliche 
Darstellung." 

3 Peixotto, "The French Revolution and Modern French Social- 
ism: a comparative study of the principles of the French Revolu- 
tion and the doctrine of modern French socialism," 1901. 

4 Seebohm, " The Oxford Reformers, John Colet, Erasmus, and 
Thomas More." 1887. 



6 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

"Utopia" and its noted author, Thomas More. In- 
deed, since its first appearance students have busied 
themselves with investigations concerning the author, 
his theories, and their place in history. Few have, 
however, treated More in his relation to, and signifi- 
cance for, socialism and its development. Professor 
Seebohm has dwelt upon this side of More's work. 
Karl Kautsky has treated the social theories of More 
in an interesting volume, the best thing that has yet 
appeared on the socialism of Thomas More. 1 Of 
Campanella and his works, " Discourses touching 
the Spanish Monarchy " and " City of the Sun," it may 
be said that nothing has been written in English. 
Slight notice has been given him in French as in "R£- 
formateurs et publicistes de PEurope," by Adolphe 
Franck, but considerable has been written of Cam- 
panella in Italian. Much of this literature, however, 
deals with the philosopher only. Very little attention 
has been paid to Morelly or his writings; an obscure 
author, little known to his own age, his leading work 
attributed to Diderot for half a century, he was in a 
position to be neglected. 

So extensive is the literature on socialism that any 
attempt at a complete bibliography would be to little 
purpose. Outside this brief reference the footnotes 

1 " Thomas More u. seine Utopie ; mit einer historischen Einlei- 
tung." 1888. 



INTRODUCTION 7 

must supply the citations on the particular aspects of 
the subject taken up. 

2. Socialism as a system of thought and action, falling 
within the sphere of human activities, may be traced 
historically either as an actual social movement or as a 
development of a peculiar type of social theory ; on the 
one side, it would deal with a set of concrete social 
facts ; on the other, with a body of theoretical principles, 
a system of social thought. The distinction, therefore, 
should be made in this case that applies to the study of 
economic history and the history of economics; or to 
the study of politics and political history. The system 
of thought set forth in the masterly writings of Karl 
Marx who started as a communist and ended as a 
socialist; who began as a radical and became a con- 
servative ; ! who started as a propagandist and ended as 
a philosopher — his system might perhaps be called 
typically socialistic from the standpoint of theory. 

Socialism viewed either as a social theory or as a 
practical system of social action means, in the large, 
the carrying the public or social control ever farther 
into the sphere so far occupied by the individual; it 
means the setting aside the so-called natural, social, and 
economic laws through the intervention of the social 
will operating consciously and in an absolute, sovereign 

1 The comparison here made has to do with the socialism of Marx 
and that radical and unreasoned communism of the prerevolutionary 
kind. 



8 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

manner as against the individual will. That it has one 
class in view as against another seems not to be an 
essential to the concept of socialism. That the motive 
toward an enlargement of the social control would be 
apt to arise within the ranks of commonalty may be 
and probably is true ; it does not at all change the na- 
ture of that social process called socialistic. That the 
masses in the lower strata tend to move in the direction 
of socialism merely means that there lies potentially 
the excess of power which is seeking a new centre of 
equilibrium in industrial spheres; as, in the political 
world democracy denotes the shifting the political 
power to a new centre. 

It is natural to inquire whether there has ever been 
any realization of the scheme of socialism worth the 
name. Has there ever been any regime in human 
experience which might be called socialistic? Has 
the ideal ever been approached or does the discussion 
begin and end in the interesting but rather barren field 
of pure theory? Men have written, and most ex- 
tensively, upon political doctrines; but back of these 
and to a large extent their source, from Aristotle down, 
has been the history of actual political society. Many 
theories of economic life have been advanced in more or 
less logical systems ; these have been founded, however, 
in most part upon the facts of the economic process 
and have been attempts either to explain or justify it. 



INTRODUCTION 9 

Proudhon defined political economy as a collection of 
observations thus far made with regard to the phenom- 
ena of the distribution and production of wealth. A 
history of political economy, then, is a record of men's 
subjective attitude toward a set of objective facts. Can 
the same thing be said of the history of socialism? 
Has there ever been a set of facts corresponding to the 
general theory of socialism, or is it merely a result of 
another attitude of mind assumed toward the normal 
individualistic economic order? It is here contended 
that socialism is largely an attitude of mind assumed 
toward the existing economic order. As a result of 
conflict there has been at times an approach toward the 
socialistic ideal. The final antithesis of individualism 
is socialism, and the form and process of human society, 
industrially considered, have gravitated toward one of 
these two poles. Never has society gone to absolute 
individualism; much less has any very perfect expres- 
sion of the opposite been found. 

Socialism, then, in so far as it has existed, has been a 
compromise, and it will probably never be more than 
this. Socialism is not an absolute fact to be attained 
and maintained ; it is rather a method of social develop- 
ment — one side of a social process, and is hence a 
continual becoming. Bitter antagonisms have been 
and must be allayed ; the larger conflict has ever been 
between the individual and the social will; and social- 



IO SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

ism, when it exists, will be found to be a synthesis of 
these two enduring antagonisms. Proudhon compares 
socialism to the god Vishnu, ever dying and yet ever 
returning to life ; it has experienced within a score of 
years its ten thousandth incarnation in the persons of 
five or six revelators. Large inroads have been made 
into the field of private initiative and of individual con- 
trol of industrial affairs. The whole area has never 
been covered by the control of organized society; 
neither is there much probability that it will be. A 
reaction is always sure to come before the extreme of 
either socialism or individualism is reached. 

Socialism is, then, a phase and method of the histori- 
cal development of industrial society. The term may 
be applied to either a process or a condition of society. 
Viewed and treated in the former sense, it becomes 
historical, matter of fact, scientific; considered from 
the other view point, it is totally unscientific, and theories 
concerning such a social structure are entirely Utopian. 
Viewed in one way, the study of socialism reveals a very 
normal process of social evolution ; seen in another light 
as a finished state of bliss and of social and economic 
quietism, it is imaginary, unhistorical, and totally im- 
practical. 

3. With these very general limitations stated, social- 
ism may with profit be thrown into contrast with other 
systems of social thought more or less akin. Socialism 



INTRODUCTION 1 1 

has been considered as a generic term. Of the types 
falling under this head, unquestionably the most im- 
portant is communism. 1 Communism may be called 
an extreme type of socialism. It is a grosser, as it is an 
earlier, form of social organization. All early social 
structure seems to have been a form of communism. 2 
It is therefore fitted to an earlier stage of industrial 
organization. Socialism is a refinement, fitted to a 
highly organized society. Its advocates have gen- 
erally contemplated a society under the regime of 
capitalism. Socialism would so order industrial society 
and have the social will so control the economic process 
as to work a redistribution of the accruing product; 
communism would work a general redistribution of the 
control of all property — productive and consumptive. 
Of the two communism is the more simple and logical. 
An equal quantitative distribution of the material 
wealth regardless of problems of value is rather a 
simple and workable formula. Communism involves 
the attempt to solve the social problems by entirely 
abandoning the system of private property. It would 
shift the industrial structure to some other basis. It 
means a reversion to a more primitive society. Com- 
munism is the antithesis of the theory of orthodox 
economics. One sees a society with no private prop- 

1 Pierson, "Stadhuishoudkunde," p. 49. 

2 Karl Kautsky, " Vorlaufer des neueren Socialismus," p. 3. 



12 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

erty ; the other rests its entire system upon the principles 
of private ownership. One would transform the state 
into an industrial corporation; the other sharply 
differentiates the state as a political organization. 
Socialism tends to reconcile these two opposites. It 
has opposed and ridiculed orthodox economics. It 
has been developed as an opposing theory to the 
laissez-faire doctrine and delights to reproach the do- 
nothing "Manchesterthum" of the English school. 
When separated from radical communism in France * 
in the later thirties and in Germany in the later forties, 
socialism becomes decidedly conservative and tends to 
shade off into schemes of reform in Germany, into a 
philosophic system under Karl Marx, 2 or a scheme of 
collectivism in France — in all instances tending to 
lose the native hue of resolution and become sicklied 
o'er with the pale cast of thought or merged into the 
mellower light of philanthropy. 3 As time passes, it is 
diverted into a variety of channels. In England trades- 
unionism rises on one side and land-nationalization on 
the other. In Germany the conservative element com- 

\See works of Pecqueur, "Theorie nouvelle d'economie sociale et 
politique," 1842; and Vidal, "De la repartition des richesses," etc., 
1846. 

2 Marx is still communist of a radical type till after the " Mani- 
festo," 1847. 

3 See schemes of Schultze-Delitzsch; cf. attacks of Lassalle on 
the proposed schemes of state banks. 



INTRODUCTION 1 3 

promises and the schemes of social control help to 
weaken the cause of radical socialism in practice, while 
the "Socialism of the Chair' ' helps to spike the guns of 
the radicals from the standpoint of theory. 

The constant tendency, therefore, has been for social- 
ism to veer about toward a more conservative course, and 
an examination of the recent programmes of socialist 
congresses shows how socialistic sails have been set 
to catch new breezes as vast industrial changes have 
brought us into strange and untried seas. The short 
and simple propaganda of communism has grown into 
more extended proportions as into the programmes has 
gone a vast number of demands, some distinctly within, 
many falling very far without, the economic sphere. 1 
Since the birth of collectivism in France, the tendency 
of socialists has been to deal with the productive side of 
the economic process. This was true of the collectivists. 
It is a fundamental principle of the massive labors of 
Karl Marx, to whose general socialistic theories the 
analysis of the process of value-production was vital, 
yielding the most important doctrine yet put out by 
socialism — that of " surplus value." 

Other socialists, moderate and radical, have laid the 
emphasis upon the process of distribution. This was 
true of John Stuart Mill, who considered that the 

1 Kautsky, "Das Erfurter Programm in seinem grundsatzlichen 
Theil erlautert." 1892. 



14 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

process of production was under the control of natural 
laws, but that the distribution of wealth was a social 
matter to be controlled by the social will. 1 Henry 
George made use of this proposition, 2 and the same 
attitude was taken by Lassalle in his conflict with 
Schultze-Delitzsch. 3 Production was presumed to 
care for itself, if only the distribution of values were 
arranged. In contrast to their views the contribution 
of Professor Clark, showing that distribution is also 
amenable to law and is only one phase of the process of 
production, is most interesting and important. 4 

With the writings of Marx the demands of socialism 
are shifted to a very rational basis. He analyzed the 
productive process to see who produced the values. 
Marx, as is well known, decided that labor produced all 
"surplus- value' ' and should therefore be the only 
sharer. This proposition laid the basis in economic 
theory of the laboring man's socialism. 5 Accepting 
the ethics of product, it made possible the basing of 
socialism upon justice and merit. This marks the 



1 " It is not so with the distribution of wealth. That is a matter 
of human institution solely." — " Principles of Political Economy," 
Bk. II, Ch. I. 

2 " Progress and Poverty." 

3 Lassalle, " Herr Bastiat-Schultze von Delitzsch, der okonomis- 
chen Julian; oder, Capital und Arbeit," pp. 13 et seq. 

4 "Distribution of Wealth," Ch. I. 

5 Sombart, "Socialism," p. 51. 



INTRODUCTION 1 5 

theoretical separation of socialism and communism. 
Based upon the Marxian formula, socialism demands, 
not that all shall share alike, but that all shall share 
according to sacrifice ; that is, that the laborer shall get 
the entire product of his labor. 1 Socialism, then, differs 
from communism in that it rests its claims upon the 
merits of labor, falls back to the ethics of product, and 
demands only justice. 2 Communism rests its claims 
upon the wants of its clientage and hence has a philan- 
thropic and not an economic basis. 

The connecting link between these two systems, both 
logically and chronologically, is Collectivism. In point 
of time it falls in with the decline of the radical com- 
munistic theories which were pretty much abandoned 
with the downfall of the school of Saint- Simon in the 
early forties. The new collectivist school was dominant 
till the rise of the later social thought with Marx, 
Engels, and Lassalle. Collectivism is a very moderate 
type of socialism hoping for a more equitable distribu- 
tion of the product of industry through a socialization 
of the instruments of production. Collectivism, then, 
stands for the distributive process, as socialism goes 
out from the productive, and communism from the 
consumptive side. 

There has long persisted, at least in the popular 

1 Menger, op. cit., p. 7. 

2 Clark, " Distribution of Wealth," pp. 8-9. 



1 6 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

mind, a tendency to confuse the terms "socialism" and 
" anarchism." None but laymen would make this error, 
yet the terms are often found linked together as if they 
had the same signification. Though in some of their 
premises there is a similarity, nothing is farther from 
the truth. Both systems advocate the abandonment of 
certain social forms which, they agree, are pernicious. 
Both systems make the welfare of the individual the 
test of the validity of social forms. Both are ultra- 
individualistic ; they fall back to a state of nature where 
all have equal rights to certain things. 

Socialism, however, deals primarily with the division 
of economic goods and starts out as an industrial 
system; anarchism has in view a political transforma- 
tion. Socialism protests against that set of move- 
ments whereby wealth has gone over into centralized 
forms and against the so-called capitalistic method of 
production. Anarchism revolts against the concentra- 
tion of political power in the forms of centralized and 
absolute governments. Democracy in industry to a cer- 
tain extent meets the demands of one; democracy in 
government partially meets the theory of the other. 

The practical tendency, moreover, of the two systems 
leads far apart. Under a regime where socialistic 
theories dominate comes a vast increase of the applica- 
tion of the public power. Instead of weakening gov- 
ernment it has from the first tended to strengthen it. 



INTRODUCTION 1 7 

Socialism in its development has placed more power 
in the public organs; it has widened the collective 
control ; it has given to government enlarged spheres of 
action and limited the area of private initiative and 
control. Socialism holds to the importance of absolute 
power of government in an enlarged sphere and leads to 
an exaggeration of public authority; anarchism in an 
equal degree emphasizes the importance and the 
absoluteness of the individual. A recent writer has 
thus expressed it: "For the anarchist the betterment 
of society depends primarily upon the betterment of the 
individual ; while for the socialist the betterment of the 
individual depends primarily upon the betterment of 
society. The complete realization of socialism pre- 
supposes the perfection of human machinery, and the 
complete realization of anarchism the perfection of hu- 
man nature. Thus do socialism of the radical type 
and anarchism differ." * 

4. There are two general views of the fundamental 
nature of society which are pertinent to this discussion, 
whose origin is rather remote. One dates back to the 
philosopher Plato, and may be called the artificial view 
of society. This doctrine is set forth in his "Republic," 
which is the working out of his social theory under the 
domination of the concept of the Ideal State. 2 The 

1 Sanborn, "Paris and the Social Revolution," p. 168. 

2 Barker, "The Political Thought of Plato and Aristotle," p. 81. 

c 



1 8 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

second theory of society goes back to Plato's great 
opponent, Aristotle, and may be called the natural view 
of society. 

The teaching of Plato on the form and purpose of 
society is best set forth in his masterpiece, "The Re- 
public." In this work, which contemplates a perfect 
commonwealth, Plato considers society as a self-con- 
scious thing, capable of directing and controlling its own 
form and process by its own deliberate action. In other 
words, he taught the possibility and practicability of an 
artificial or an ideally constructed state — a Utopia of 
social bliss. Many writers have accepted the general 
principle above set down; such men as Aquinas, 
Augustine, More, Campanella, Harrington, Bacon, 
Hall, Fenelon, Morelly, and Rousseau — writers with 
whom one fundamental proposition may be discovered ; 
namely, that society may control its own form and 
process. In other words, every theory of social welfare 
here called socialistic, which has appeared from Plato 
to Karl Marx, has been dominated by this view; has 
been under the guidance of the principle that society 
may be artificially constructed; that reformers may 
say, "Go to; let us construct a society." * 

1 " Thus it is, then, that owing to our many wants, and because 
each seeks the aid of others, we gather many associates and helpers 
into one dwelling-place and give to this joint dwelling the name of 
city." — " Republic," Vaughan Edition, Bk. II, p. 54. " Now, then, let 



INTRODUCTION 1 9 

According to Aristotle, however, the social will ex- 
pressed through government cannot control the social in- 
stitutions. If slavery exists, it exists because certain men 
are naturally slaves; while others are born to be mas- 
ters ; social relationships are determined in this natural 
and hence inevitable manner. In the theory of Aristotle 
man is by nature a master or by nature a slave ; he is by 
nature rich or by nature poor. In the nature of things 
man is as he is, and on the nature of the individuals in 
society does the form of society depend. 1 

Plato placed great confidence in the actions of the 
social will. He would trust the social mind in its 
conclusions as to the best ordering of human society. 
His theory is the opposite of that of Aristotle. It is the 
opposite of that philosophy upon which later political 
economy came to rest. It is denied by the teachings 
of the Physiocrats, to whom the natural laws were all 
important. It was contradicted by the "Laissez- 
fairists" everywhere. Plato's teachings conflict with 
the doctrines of classical economics where society was 
supposed to be controlled by the laws of its nature. 
His theory of society in this regard is refuted by the 
evolutionary theories of social science ; it is abandoned 

us construct our imaginary city from the beginning. It will owe its 
construction, it appears, to our natural wants." — Ibid., p. 54. So in 
various places Plato emphasizes the possibility of establishing an 
artificial city. Cf. Ibid. p. 127. 

1 "Politics," Jowett's translation, Vol. I, p. 2. 



20 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

by the scientific school of socialism led by Karl Marx, 
who goes over to the evolutionary idea of social progress. 

The natural conclusions of the theory of Aristotle are 
classical economics, laissez-faire doctrines, individual- 
ism in industry, free competition, Manchester school. 
The equally logical outgrowths of Plato's idea of social 
control are seen in the mediaeval control of affairs of 
church and state, monastic life, celibacy, clerical theories 
of political economy, Utopian socialism, protective 
systems, mercantilism, and the many schemes of state 
socialism and public control which are offered as 
nostrums for all sorts of social ills. The period of 
Adam Smith may be said to mark the downfall of the 
extreme theory of social control which in one way or 
another had dominated thought since Plato ; in politics 
it broke down earlier; in the realm of socialism it 
continued till Karl Marx, who abandoned this con- 
structive notion and began the study of the operation of 
those social laws which control the process of social 
evolution. 

Socialism, then, as here discussed, has this peculiar 
view of human society; it has a life philosophy, indi- 
vidual and social; it advocates the theory of social 
control as against the domination of individual ambition, 
selfishness, and rapacity; it opposes the laissez-faire 
theory and practice, and declares war on free competi- 
tion. 



INTRODUCTION 21 

5. In the search for unity in the thought of those 
writers who may be called socialistic, some difficulty is 
met with. It may be said that among the different 
shades of socialistic belief the lines of unity are more 
marked on the destructive side. Most socialists, of 
whatever color, naturally agree in attacking with about 
equal severity the existing order. Against certain 
features of modern industrial society — the wage 
system, free competition, the existence of the leisure 
class, and certain economic categories such as rent and 
profits — all socialism presents a united front. Along 
this line is to be sought the historical continuity of 
socialistic teaching. Whether or not the socialists have 
crystallized or can crystallize their thought into any 
positive system, they have at least been united in waging 
war on the existing social system. One thing they all 
proclaim, that, come what may, the present cannot 
endure. 1 

It may seem like stating a truism to say that, as 
socialism is a doctrine of discontent, it has been a 
propaganda of the less advantaged class of society. It 
is true that in its modern phases socialism is a laboring 
man's movement, and its philosophy, the basis of which 
was laid in the theory of " surplus- value'' by Karl Marx, 

1 " But seeing the masses are more easily united on negations, an 
immense revolutionary power must be ascribed to both." Menger, 
op. cit.y p. 160. 



22 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

is a laboring man's philosophy. There is, however, 
nothing in the system of socialism to make it necessarily 
a lower-class movement. 1 The general attitude of 
socialism toward the problem of distribution is that the 
natural laws fixing the shares of the product of the 
industrial process, which are trusted implicitly by 
the laissez-faire school, are entirely untrustworthy. 
There must, therefore, be some external pressure 
brought to bear to more equitably distribute the social 
income. The extent or completeness of this social 
interference in the realm of natural economic law marks 
the varying degrees of socialism. There is, however, 
nothing in this general theory which attaches it nec- 
essarily to the lower or laboring classes. 

Socialists have commonly recognized, since Thomas 
More, that the causes of social and political evils lie in 
the maladjustments of economic relationships. They 
all hold quite consistently that, with the existing 
capitalistic organization of society, wrong, injustice, 
inequality, and misery are a necessity and a natural and 
unavoidable outgrowth of conditions. With this sys- 
tem of industrial organization, social betterment is a 
vain hope. Palliatives there may be, but not a cure. 
This leads all socialists to the radical conclusion that 
reformation of the vicious system is vain and that hope 
lies only in its destruction. This was especially true 
1 Sombart, " Socialism/ ' pp. 154-156. 



INTRODUCTION 23 

of the earlier social theorists. To them the existing 
social organization was pernicious and unsatisfactory, 
producing normally social evil and unrest. Hence they 
propose to totally alter the social structure and so re- 
organize society that justice and universal social welfare 
would be its normal fruitage. The socialists have, then, 
generally believed that the present social system has 
been tried and been found wanting. 1 Socialism has 
this common feature marking its varied history. It 
has been a protest against the existing order. In the 
earlier period discussed in this study, it was against that 
type of industrial life that was hastening the disintegra- 
tion of society, feudally organized, and taking its place. 
As Professor Foxwell says: "We may regard social- 
ism as a protest against the extravagances of the in- 
dividualistic movement of the Renaissance and the 
Reformation; against the disintegration of the settled 
order and inner harmony of mediaeval life." 2 

Socialism has from the start attacked industrial society 
as thus organized on a basis of individualism. The 
struggle, therefore, opens when the forces of individual- 
ism begin to dominate. As the spirit of individualism, 
coming into existence with the Reformation, augmented 
and gained clearer and stronger expression, so grew the 

1 Cf. Kleinwachter, "Die Staatsromane," p. 20. Mackay, "A His- 
tory of English Poor Laws," N. Y., 1900, p. 6. 

2 Introduction to translation of Menger's " Right to the Whole 
Produce of Labor," p. xxv. 



24 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

opposing spirit of socialism. From the Reformation 
down to the period of Adam Smith it is vague and 
ill-defined; so is the opposing principle of socialism. 
With the coming-in of the individualistic regime, es- 
pecially in the time of the classical economists in 
England and of the physiocrats in France, individual- 
ism becomes strong and aggressive, and socialism be- 
comes a clearer system and its advocates active propa- 
gandists. After Adam Smith the two principles are 
more consciously appreciated, and the classes on either 
side are engaged in the social struggle. 

Another common ground upon which socialists, 
earlier and later, can meet is found in their attitude 
toward private property. Private property, being the 
foundation-stone of modern society and a fundamental 
hypothesis in existing economic theory, is naturally a 
subject of constant discussion and an object of the 
cordial dislike of all writers bearing the title of social- 
ist. The early schemes are largely occupied in discuss- 
ing the abandonment of private ownership and a pos- 
sible substitute for a social foundation. It appears 
evident from a study of the programmes of socialistic 
congresses and documents from the " Communist 
Manifesto" of Karl Marx to the programme of Erfurt 
or Hanover, modern socialism has not changed its 
attitude. 1 

1 See Kautsky, op. cit. t pp. 148 et. seq. 



INTRODUCTION 25 

All earlier schemes for social regeneration assume a 
"man of nature.' ' They propose to build society upon 
primitive principles. All radical social writers insist 
upon a greater simplicity in social life. One of the 
tenets widely accepted is that progress may consist in 
lessening social wants as well as in increasing produc- 
tive power. This to a certain extent meets the charges 
often urged against socialism, that it threatens in- 
dustrial efficiency and hence the amount of the product. 
The state of nature here conceived of is a condition of 
primitive perfection to be attained by a return to earlier 
conditions rather than through progress to reach a 
future state of social bliss. Early socialism had about 
the same idea of a primitive state of nature as had 
Pufendorf : " By the natural state of man in our present 
inquiry we do not mean the condition which is ulti- 
mately designed for him by nature as the most agree- 
able ; but such a state as we can conceive man placed 
in by his bare nativity abstracting him from all the rules 
and constitutions whether of human invention or of the 
suggestion and revelation of heaven; for the addition 
of those assistances seems to put another face on things 
and to frame life anew upon an exacter model.' ' * 
This sums up the ideas of a state of nature as held by 
the early social theorists. This theory is adhered to, 
directly or tacitly, from Thomas More to Rousseau. 

1 "Law of Nature and of Nations," Bk. 2, Ch. II. 



26 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

Another feature very common to all the earlier and 
many later socialist doctrines is the emphasis placed 
upon the influence of environment upon individual and 
social life. This is of two kinds : social environment, 
viewed as the direct cause of social evil; and material 
environment, considered as a most potent factor in the 
formation of social and individual character. So- 
cialism especially emphasizes the power of the social 
environment ; and as by hypothesis the social structure 
is artificial and changeable at will, the radical social- 
ists logically insist that the social conditions be totally 
altered. Evil is attributed to society and its vicious 
institutions; therefore society must be reconstructed. 

Touching the despotic tendency of radical socialistic 
and communistic schemes, an appreciative writer says : 
"The system, the most authentic and absolute, is the 
system based upon communism ; either before or after 
the invention of the word i socialism/ especially those 
schemes patterned after Campanella, Thomas More, and 
the Moravian brethren. Those schemes that abandon 
private property are* absolute in their nature." 

Most of the early social schemes placed an absolute 
"prince" at the centre of their system. Illustrations 
may be seen in Erasmus' "Christian Prince," the 
"Prince" of the great Machiavelli, the supreme power 
"Hoh"in the "City of the Sun," Hobbes' "Leviathan," 



INTRODUCTION 27 

and Von Haller's "Usong," — in all the "prince" is 
idealized and given a place of commanding prominence. 
In government a monarchic plan is outlined; society 
is organized on the principle of a personal hierarchy. 

A study of the early social schemes reveals the truth 
that they saw that a society without gradations was 
impossible and that where property ceased to be the 
principle of classification, it must rest upon a basis of 
personal distinction ; and the schemes are marked by the 
fact of a personal hierarchy of the most absolute kind. 
All history bears evidence that the evolution of liberty 
has been closely associated with the evolution of pri- 
vate property. Personal relationships, from low forms 
of slavery up, have been relationships of servitude and 
tyranny; property relationships have brought about 
conditions of independence. Only two general types 
of social relationship can exist ; one has a material, the 
other a personal, foundation. Systems rejecting private 
property have fallen back on the principle of personal 
allegiance. To this alternative all Utopian schemes of 
social regeneration have been driven, and in the nature 
of the case they have been despotic. This despotic 
form of control and of social organization is common to 
all early socialism where property is abandoned as the 
basis of social organization. 

Socialistic writers have not been so blind as to rob 
society of the common motive to industry and make no 



28 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

other provisions. Under most schemes of socialism 
attention is paid to the need of motives to industrial 
activity. Socialists insist that motives arising from 
primary wants should and will displace those arising 
from secondary ones. Thus they oppose money and 
pecuniary gains as being unnecessary in the industrial 
process. The pecuniary motive would, then, be 
abandoned by socialists and no harm be expected. 
Socialists unite in opposing luxury and believe that 
industrial society can more nearly supply the wants of 
all its members by living in a simple rather than in a 
complex, luxurious manner. The demand for primary 
utilities would, they conceive, supply enough impetus. 
With the desire for distinction gone, many of the ex- 
travagant expenses necessary under the present system 
would vanish. All the desire and the cost of "con- 
spicuous waste" would be avoided. All sharing 
substantially alike, the motive to effort arising from the 
class-struggle and competition would be avoided by 
society; but so would the corresponding waste. But 
if the motives to labor be somewhat lessened, the sacri- 
fice of industrial effort will be to the same degree 
reduced; and labor becoming really a pleasure, the 
motive to toil will come from the activities themselves. 
As will be pointed out, this has been long emphasized, 
and Fourier was not the first one to dream of the 
possibilities of a laborer's paradise. 



INTRODUCTION 29 

Consistent with the attitude taken, the early so- 
cialist was of a decidedly constructive turn of mind. 
The destructive effects of a communist propaganda 
require a theory of social reconstruction. A most 
cursory view of the growth of private property in its 
relation to social evolution will suggest what a large 
task rests upon the social theorist who would destroy 
private property and its kindred forms, and yet preserve 
orderly society. It is, however, undoubtedly true that 
society in the age of Thomas More and the whole early 
school of radical communists and socialists was [not so 
dependent upon the fact of private property as is the 
modern age.. That less apprehension was entertained 
at casting it aside was very natural. 

A most pleasing and equally groundless optimism 
marks most of the early socialist writings. This 
optimism rests upon a peculiar philosophy of life and 
on a boundless confidence in the possibilities of human 
nature. It also holds to the doctrine of the benevo- 
lence of nature and of natural law. Socialism seeks 
to relocate the causes of misery, not in nature, but in 
society and in its perverted institutions. In this fact 
lies its hopefulness. Not in natural and inevitable 
economic laws, as the "iron law of wages" or "Malthu- 
sian laws of population/ 7 or " dismal laws of supply 
and demand' ' — not in these lie the causes of evil and 
of misery, but in social environment and in institutions 



30 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

which can be and should be changed, — here lies the 
root of social woe. 

It was to the reconstruction of society, as thus con- 
ceived, that early socialism directed its attention. 
Along with this very hopeful view of the possibility of 
society if once properly organized goes an equally 
gloomy view of the outlook for existing society. Pes- 
simism as to conditions, optimism as to possibilities, 
sums up in a phrase its attitude toward society. The 
socialist reverses the old adage to " Whatever is, is 
wrong," and records a violent protest against existing 
institutions. 

Another feature marking all early social schemes is a 
devotion to a peculiar form of political and social organi- 
zation — the city-state, with which was coupled the 
kindred notion of insularity. Most early social re- 
formers hoped for social regeneration and betterment 
through the organization of closely aggregated social 
groups, self-sufficient and isolated. All the artificial 
schemes were patterned after the Greek model, the one 
Plato had in mind in his " Republic,' ' the Greek city- 
state. 1 Conditions favored this in England in the age 
of More and in Italy in that of Campanella. In 
England cities were less developed, but Italy was the 
home of the city-state. Campanella naturally con- 
structed his "City of the Sun" along the lines of mu- 

1 Barker, op. cit. } p. 2. 



INTRODUCTION 3 1 

nicipal organization. Around him were the declining 
"city republics" ; while more remote, yet forceful, was 
the memory of the seven-hilled city on the Tiber. To 
the Italian, indeed, the problem of civilization had 
always been a municipal problem. Campanella shared 
in this belief. 

Socialism has adhered to the idea of a social solidarity. 
This is hoped for through the establishment of equality, 
the rejection of the principle of individualism, the 
substitution of social-interest for self-interest, and the 
modification of the class-struggle. Socialism hopes to 
do away with industrial anarchy, allay the class-struggle, 
and to banish the savagery of competition. It has 
busied itself chiefly with the problem of distribution 
and has concerned itself less with production. Goods 
once produced are to be equitably distributed. It is 
the apparent unequal distribution that perplexes the 
socialist. "A better distribution of products would 
alone give all enough to eat. . . . The fault then if 
we have not enough to eat lies in the defective organi- 
zation and is not due to lack of production." * These 
words express a common feature of socialistic doctrine. 

Another feature very much emphasized as a peculiar 
contribution of socialism is the so-called economic or 
materialistic interpretation of history. Its main propo- 
sition is that history advances under the influence of the 

1 Jean Grave, " L' Anarchie, son But, ses Moyens." 



32 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

strife of classes, whose struggle concerns the distribu- 
tion of material wealth. According to Schmoller, the 
socialists are not responsible for the introduction of this 
type of historical interpretation; though they soon 
came to appeal to it in support of their socialistic 
propaganda. 1 After the great historians, such as 
Niebuhr, Thierry, and Guizot, had laid emphasis upon 
the class-struggle and its relation to historical develop- 
ment, the socialists took up the idea and have very much 
expanded it. From this they naturally arrived at a 
particular form of economic interpretation. 2 

The attempt will be made in a subsequent chapter to 
show that whatever may have been the later develop- 
ment of society along class-lines, based upon an eco- 
nomic difference, the early radical social teachings are 
largely free from the influence of this social classification, 
and there is no clear evidence of class-antagonism. It 
is here maintained that at the break-up of the mediaeval 
system, English social history did not develop along any 

1 Schmoller, " Akademie der Wissenschaften," 1903, p. 1109. 

2 A very extensive literature has grown up on this subject. For a 
good resume see article by Gustav Schmoller, "Akademie der Wis- 
senschaften/ ' 1903; also Vol. II of his " Volkswirthschaftslehre," 
Bk. 4, Ch. 2. Cf. Karl Kautsky, "Die Klassengegensatze von, 1889," 
Pamphlet No. 4, Neue Zeit, 1889; Hans Muller, "Der Klassen- 
kampf in der deutschen Socialdemokratie," 1892 ; A. Schaffle, " Kapi- 
talismus und Socialismus," Siebente Abtheilung, 1878; Sombart, 
"Socialism,'' Chs. 3 and 4; Karl Marx, "Das Kapital," Einleitung; 
Bernstein, " Voraussetzungen des Socialismus," Ch. I. 



INTRODUCTION 33 

narrow lines of class-conflict ; but that much of both the 
theory and practice was concerned with the general 
social welfare viewed in its entirety. The same thing 
might be said of France in the period of Revolution 
when the legislation passed controlled all social classes. 1 
While there were, during the earlier part of the struggle, 
no clear class-lines, toward the close the class-lines 
came to be distinguished and the struggle for the rights 
of man came to mean a struggle for the rights of the 
sans culottes. 2 A discussion of the class-struggle would, 
of course, involve a consideration of those much mooted 
points concerning the purpose and place of the guilds. 
The overemphasis of the idea of a class-conflict would 
doubtless lead to a serious misconception of these most 
important bodies. 3 The view held here is that the 
guilds and the progress of early England advanced with 
little reference to a class-conflict. It is maintained that 
More's "Utopia," like Plato's " Republic, " was a work 
on human welfare in its more general aspects. More, 
in his study of sixteenth- century society, made many 

1 Kautsky, " Socialistische Monatsheft," 1901-1902. Sombart, 
"Socialism," pp. 40-41. Cf. Lichtenberger, "Socialisme et la Revo- 
lution francaise," Introduction. 

2 See speech of Boissel quoted later. 

3 For general discussion see : Webb, " History of Trades-union- 
ism" ; Brentano, "Origin of Trades-unions" ; Howell, "History of 
Trades-unions"; Cunningham, "Industrial History"; Unwin, 
"Industrial Organization of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Cen- 
turies." 



34 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

valuable suggestions to later socialism; he did not, 
however, conceive of society from the view point of a 
class-struggle. What he did see was a gradual evolu- 
tion of class-consciousness. 

6. A large part of the discussion of socialism up to the 
work of Ferdinand Lassalle may be called academic. 1 
All early socialistic thought was advanced by philosophic 
minds, and its influence was confined to narrow and 
exclusive circles. Until the famous appeal by Karl 
Marx to the laboring men, the socialistic principles and 
propaganda have been largely divorced from the gen- 
eral mass of the people. The self-help idea of the lower 
classes is a very modern idea. 2 The participation of the 
labor class in the movements of socialism is still more 
modern. Robert Owen appealed to the aristocratic 
element. His efforts were for the less advantaged class ; 
it was not to them he appealed nor through them that he 
purposed reform. 3 The French socialists of the first 
half of the nineteenth century organized schools, such as 
that of Saint-Simon; they did not organize the lower 
classes. Louis Blanc came nearer to it, though his was 
not a proletariat movement. 

It may be asked why this form of idealistic and 
impractical social theory so completely dominated the 

1 From 1 859-1 864 Lassalle was actively engaged in agitation. 
1 Active labor movements began in England about 1825. 
8 " New View of Society." 1816. 



INTRODUCTION 35 

earlier period of discussion. In the first place these 
theories were advanced when exact method was not 
developed and when literary form was much em- 
phasized. Again, the literary romance is a convincing 
and insidious manner of presentation. The romance 
was, moreover, a form that gave greater immunity to the 
writers. Direct attack on existing institutions was not 
tolerated. Satires and romances enjoyed almost com- 
plete immunity throughout the period of despotism, 
both in England and in France. 

Another, fact to be noted is that social theorizing of 
this form marks the period of the romance of travel. 
These writings appeared when for the first time remote 
lands were being visited and explored. Primitive 
peoples were discovered and studied, all of which 
started new lines of social thought, fired the imagination, 
and gave food for the romancist. This was perhaps 
the first time since theorizing began that civilization had 
been thrown and kept in contact with barbarian life and 
culture. The Greeks knew the "Barbarian" or non- 
Greek; Latin writers portray peoples of strange man- 
ner and life ; but they were not barbarians. 

Literature of various kinds was stimulated by this new 
experience. For centuries it had depended entirely 
upon earlier and hence ancient culture for its models and 
ideals; from the classical age had come its impetus, 
and the Renaissance had brought its rich treasures from 



36 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

ancient civilization. In this age not a classical but a 
new, primitive, uncultured world appealed to the 
imagination and awakened the fancy. This new 
culture gave suggestions on methods of social organi- 
zation and of political structure. 

Only a few illustrations can be given here from the 
field of literature. The romance 1 of Thomas More 
shows this new force in an interesting manner. The 
scene of his social study is the new western world. His 
chief actor is a seaman who had journeyed with 
America's first geographer. The people he takes as his 
model for social regeneration are simple barbarians. 
More idealizes these people, their simple virtues and 
effective social organization, and contrasts it with the 
England of his day. The use Swift makes of about the 
same set of facts is instructive. He falls under the 
same influence, but writes one of the most hateful satires 
that at once amuses and insults the reader. Mrs. 
Aphra Behn took the same set of conditions and ideal- 
ized primitive man, giving literature that much used 
concept of the "good savage" (le bon sauvage). 
Rousseau borrowed this idea and adapted it to his 
purpose. In the writings of Hobbes and Locke the 
same evidence appears, and their illustrations are 
drawn from the newly explored area of savage life. 

It is an interesting fact that the study of primitive 

1 Utopia, 1 516. 



INTRODUCTION 37 

man and the attempt to analyze him were accompanied 
by an effort to study more extensively the animal 
world. One led to a reexamination of man himself and 
his spiritual possibilities, and had its results in an at- 
tempt to so readjust social institutions as to make them 
correspond with the new conception of what man was 
in his primitive state. The study of politics shows the 
effects of this new thought, and revolutions depended on 
it. Social schemes of reconstruction and betterment 
reflect the same force. The newly aroused study of 
animal life led to a study of the origin of species, the 
place of man in the realm of life, and the consideration 
of the evolution of higher forms of life. The former 
type of study was begun by Thomas More ; the latter 
by Lopez and Pigafetta and continued by the modern 
students of anthropology and sociology. 1 

It may be said, then, that this type of social thought 
and study was largely academic and intellectual. It 
did not affect the feelings nor appeal to the emotions. It 
did, however, affect men's minds. These writings were 
not fruitful in leading men to action ; they were rather 
thought-breeders. The men they reached were not 
stirred to action by them; students were, however, to 

1 See John Pinkerton, " General Collection of the Best and Most 
Interesting Voyages and Travels in all Parts of the World." 181 1. 
Cf. "Travels of Rabbi Benjamin," 1160-1173; "Remarkable 
Travels of William de Rubinquis, a Monk," 1253. 



38 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

take them up and develop them. 1 The value of these 
Utopian and romantic writings should not be under- 
estimated. They awakened the fire of agitation, and the 
thought was widened and intensified and made effective 
in modern times. These writings have been arsenals 
from which modern social critics have taken weapons. 
Against the fantasy of poetry there is no effective eco- 
nomical argument. 2 These romances were the origin 
of new social ideals, without which a social revolution 
is impossible. Back of all attempted reforms have been 
held up those rosy, unattainable prospects. 3 

This type of literature, then, cannot be ignored. It 
forms too large a part of the social and political writings 
of the time and contains many rational, progressive 
ideas of reform. It should not be rejected simply 
because it does not present a logical dogmatic scheme. 
The social Utopias and romances here studied teach 
social theory and induce reform by means of the con- 
crete example. They set forth social ideas and clothe 
them with flesh and blood, as it were. 

It has been pointed out that socialism has passed 
through three stages : the imaginative or romantic, the 
critical, and the scientific. What is dealt with here is 

1 Dowden, "The French Revolution and English Literature," p. 6. 
Buckle, "History of Civilization," Vol. I, Ch. i. 

3 Barth, " Der Sozialistische Zukunftstaat," pp. 7-8. 

3 Von Mohl, "Tiibinger Zeitschrift," 1845, pp. 24 et seq. 



INTRODUCTION 39 

largely the first or imaginative period. " Since the 
human spirit has been awakened to reflection, it has 
ever been inclined amidst all the puzzles and contradic- 
tions and needs of human life to create a harmonious 
whole in which all these difficulties are forever solved." * 
7. In the study of the history of ideas, chronology is 
not of first importance ; however, so closely does social 
theory tend to correspond to actual social development 
that some attention must be given it. It is here main- 
tained that one general type of thought is discernible 
from Plato to Karl Marx. There are certain underlying 
principles in which this unity is said to subsist. Within 
this larger area certain smaller divisions fall. The 
period of the classical writers finding its centre in Plato 
forms one conspicuous era. The second era, marked by 
the writings of the Christian Fathers, has been very much 
discussed as marking the opening of reasoned commun- 
ism. A more distinct and fruitful period is included 
between the Reformation and the Revolution ; this saw 
the formation of that form of industrial society against 
which modern socialism protests and has been chosen 
as the subject of this study. A developed form of 
socialistic thought, much after the earlier models, 
appears from the Revolution to Karl Marx. It has 
much color given it by the events and changes of the new 
machine age. 

1 Pohlmann, " Geschichte des antiken Kommunismus und Sozial- 
ismus," Vol. II, p. 3. 



40 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

The period chosen for this study covers about two 
centuries, and is treated under three general divisions 
of time. The first is the Reformation period, the centre 
of which is the work of Sir Thomas More. The second 
division goes out from Thomas Campanella in Italy 
and includes the agitation in England. The period 
preceding the French Revolution is treated last and has 
Morelly as its central figure. 

The classification here adopted puts that very able 
group of writers that appeared after the French Revo- 
lution among the Utopian socialists. These years were 
years of the most bitter disappointment. Countless 
things in the industrial world seemed to indicate that 
the Revolution had been barren of results. Reformers 
turned from the attempts at political betterment to a 
struggle to improve social life. This age is also marked 
by a return from an aggressive socialist propagandism 
to the literary type of social theorizing; it meant a 
return to the cell of the Utopian and the dreamer. The 
first quarter of a century showed that tendency most 
clearly and all kinds of literature bear the stamp of 
social hopelessness. The bright optimism of the closing 
half of the eighteenth century gave way to the most 
gloomy scepticism. 

With the French Revolution the climax of the most 
radical aspect of socialism was reached. There are 
many advocates of extreme communism after this time, 



INTRODUCTION 4 1 

and the term " communism " covers this type of thought 
till 1848. Marx and Engels use it in their famous 
"Manifesto" of 1848. The term "socialism" was 
introduced in 1839. The grosser form of communism 
is modified at about this time. It takes the form of 
collectivism in the hands of Vidal and Pecqueur or goes 
over more to a political mould in the anarchism of 
Proudhon. In England literary and Christian social- 
ism develop, and active agitation begins over land-nation- 
alization. Scientific socialism came from the hands of 
Marx and Rodbertus, and radical social transformation 
and reconstruction were abandoned for efforts at amel- 
ioration of the Schultze-Delitzsch type. 1 

This period is marked by an awakening of class- 
consciousness and the recognition of class-interests and 
a consequent class-conflict. Social reformers show 
this ; the legislation of the time evidences it. Laws are 
carried through because of new class-alignments; a 
"bourgeois king" is put on the throne of France in 1830, 
and a proletariat republic is established in 1848. 
Political economists, such as Ricardo, point out clearly 
the classes that share and struggle for that share, in the 
distribution of wealth. This period was marked by the 
birth of the proletariat class and the opening of a con- 
flict of the lower class on its own behalf. It saw the 

1 Cf . Laveleye, "Social Problems," p. 199; also Ruppert, "Das 
sociale System Bazards," p. 9. 



42 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

disappearance of barriers to lower-class movements, 
permitting the organization of the laboring classes 
everywhere. 

Following this period here called " Utopian" is the 
appearance of scientific socialism. It begins when Karl 
Marx, after drawing much of his inspiration from the 
exponents of French radicalism, brushed aside their 
works of fancy and proceeded to study historically and 
critically the evolution of the industrial process for the 
purpose of showing that the existing forms must in the 
nature of things be transformed in a socialistic direction. 1 
As this is not the place to discuss the problems as to the 
nature and origin of scientific socialism so called, only 
citations will be given touching this much mooted 
point. 2 

Scientific socialism depended upon two sources for its 
force ; the evolutionary idealism of Hegel on one side, 3 

1 Seligman, "Economic Interpretation of History," p. 26. 

2 " Von Babeuf welcher in leidenschaftlicher Weise eine radicale 
Umgestaltung der gesellschaftlicher Verhaltnisse bezweckt hatte, 
gehen wir auf Saint-Simon uber, welche dem Vernichtungsprincip 
der franzosischen Revolution das Princip rationeller positiver Re- 
form entgegensetzte, weshalb seine Lehre auch als der Ausgangspunk 
des wissenschaftliche Sozialismus bezeichnet wird." Ruppert, "Das 
Soziale System Bazards," p. 10. Cf. Booth, "Saint-Simon and Saint- 
Simonism ,, ; Duhring, "Kritische Geschichte der National Oeko- 
nomie," p. 249; Menger, "Right to the Whole Produce of Labor," 
translation, pp. 83-84 ; Barth, " Sociologie und Philosophic," Vol. I, 
p. 23 ; " Saint-Simon (Euvres," Vol. XIX, pp. 81-84. 

8 Engels, op. cit., pp. 36 et seq. 



INTRODUCTION 43 

the materialistic thought of Darwin and Spencer on 
the other. Ferri says: " Marxian socialism has tri- 
umphed, thanks to the work of Darwin and Spencer. " l 

8. In explanation of the divisions chosen for this study, 
a few special features marking this period will conclude 
this introduction. In the first place, not only the con- 
ditions under which modern socialism could arise, but 
many of the principles of socialism in its more radical 
aspects begin to show themselves in the age of Sir 
Thomas More. It is equally true that the climax of 
this type of thought was reached in the French Revolu- 
tion. This period is marked by a search for principles 
upon which the system of society based upon private 
property might be defended. 2 The period of the 
Revolution saw this type of discussion subside; saw 
the right of property strengthened and confirmed by 
being lodged in positive law and that established in 
France by the will of a democratic society. 

As has been stated, this period was clearly marked by 
the theory that society is a thing not so much of nature 
as of reason. This is true, not merely of socialistic 
theory, but of political and economic doctrine as well. 
In the economic realm the system of mercantilism 
presented the conscious plan of state- making with an 

1 Ferri, "Socialism and Positive Science," p. 1. Cf. "Report of 
Society of Social Sciences," Jena, 1820; also Bonar, op. cit. } p. 329 

2 In Chapter VI these principles are set forth at length. 



44 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

economic basis. In politics the theory of the social 
contract teaches the peculiar rational element in the 
formation of the state and shows this period fitted for 
radical schemes of social reform. The logical con- 
sequences of this type of thinking are seen in the Age of 
Reason in France and its natural fruitage in the political 
experiments of the period of the Revolution. Two 
illustrations show the folly of radical schemes. One 
set of experiments is seen in the political sphere during 
the period of constitution-making in France. The 
other is seen in the economic sphere in the national 
workshops of 1848. Social reformers come to learn 
that man is by nature a political being. He is by 
nature rich or poor, employer or employed. They 
come to the opinion that, while the social will can in 
many ways direct social growth, it cannot remake 
society. 

Another feature marking the period was the promi- 
nence of agrarian questions. The increase of capitalism 
and its many influences was apparent, but till the 
Revolution the dominant fact was agriculture; the 
leading questions- were agrarian questions and the 
socialism may be called an agrarian socialism. England 
was prepared for an industrial type of economics in the 
time of Adam Smith and for the economics of commerce 
when Ricardo wrote; France, however, lingered much 
later in the agrarian atmosphere of physiocracy. 



INTRODUCTION 45 

Problems touching the relation of industrial labor and 
industrial capital show themselves after the Revolution. 

This period, moreover, was dominated chiefly by 
what may be called the economy of consumption. This 
holds true till the days of Adam Smith. He marks 
what may be called the beginning of the pecuniary age. 1 
The idea of use-value had been more emphasized up to 
the time of Adam Smith who laid new emphasis upon 
exchange-value. The leading demand was for primary 
as opposed to secondary utilities. This phase is il- 
lustrated by a variety of sumptuary laws passed in 
England. One aspect of mercantilism, when certain 
articles of luxury were forbidden, displays the same 
attitude toward use-values. This same view will be 
brought out in discussing the writings of this age. 
Under such conditions it was natural that little dis- 
tinction should be made between goods for consumption 
and productive wealth. There were two chief classes 
of goods, consumption goods and land. There has ever 
been a tendency, natural and hence persistent, to view 
land as common property; which has led easily to a 
demand for communism in land. 2 

Before the Revolution, there was lacking that larger 

1 Veblen, " Preconceptions of Adam Smith," Economic Journal, 
Vols. 13-14. 

2 Eden, "The State of the Poor, or an History of the Laboring 
Classes in England," Vol. 1, Ch. 1. 



46 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

social unity of which social reformers had dreamed since 
Plato and which had been described by the Christian 
Fathers as a universal brotherhood. The growth of 
socialism or of socialization or even of class sympathy 
depended, first, upon a development of nationalism, and 
second, upon the wider spirit of internationalism. 
Social regeneration depended as much upon national 
unity as did political organization. 1 The influence of 
this lack of unity upon the larger social interests was 
clearly seen and forcibly put by Turgot: "Thus the 
various crafts become so many various communities 
of which the general community was made up. The 
religious brotherhoods, by tightening the cords that 
united the individuals in the same crafts, gave them 
more frequent occasions to assemble and to occupy 
themselves in the common interests of their particular 
society, — interests which they pursued with continued 
activity to the prejudice of the interests of society in 
general." 2 The possibility of this larger socialization 
depended pretty much upon the same fact as did the 
growth of internationalism. The underlying fact in 
both was the growth of the new capitalism. 

It is a distinction so often made as to be trite that 
there are two general types of capital — trade and in- 
dustrial capital. The dominant form of capital before 

1 Schmoller, "The Mercantile System," p. 47. 

2 Daire, CEuvres de Turgot, Vol. II, p. 304. 



INTRODUCTION 47 

the Revolution, in the earlier part of the period here 
studied, was trade or commercial capital. The period 
following the Revolution was marked by an enormous 
expansion of industrial capital, which introduced an 
entirely new set of problems. 1 Now the larger signifi- 
cance lies in the form of organization which each of these 
favored. The marked tendency of trade capital was to 
develop the smaller groups ; it was a great nationaliz- 
ing force. Mercantilism, another term for nationalism, 
was engaged almost exclusively with commercial capital. 
It was in this connection that capital, that is, large ac- 
cumulated funds, began to exercise influence in many 
directions. The large trade companies of Holland 
and England illustrate this. 

In like manner has industrial capital been connected 
with the international or cosmopolitan doctrines. 2 
This change of doctrine is first clearly seen in the teach- 
ings of Adam Smith, who discussed the economics 
of manufacture and industry. Along with the growth of 
this international aspect of capital came a widening of 
the sympathies of the laboring classes and a consequent 
broadening of the basis upon which social agitation 
could proceed and socialism come to rest. It was in 
1847 when the famous Manifesto of Karl Marx sounded 
the keynote of the modern socialist struggle, that the 

1 See Pecqueur, op. cit., pp. 565 et seq. 

2 Schmoller, op. cit. y p. 69. 



48 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

startling call for union of laborers everywhere showed 
this struggle to be too large for national limits and the 
first attempt at international socialism was made. The 
narrow exclusiveness still regnant in the days of Tur- 
got, this broad international aspect seen in the ill- 
starred "International" — herein lies part of the 
antithesis between the old and the new age. 

The idea so much discussed in later literature, that 
labor is a commodity, does not often appear in the 
earlier writings. In the eighteenth century it is re- 
ferred to in some such terms. Montesquieu says: 
"A man is not poor because he has nothing, but be- 
cause he does not work. The man who, without any 
degree of wealth, has yet an employment is as much at 
his ease as he who, without labor, has an income of a 
hundred crowns a year. He who has no substance 
and yet has a trade is not poorer than he who, possessing 
ten acres of land, is obliged to cultivate it for his sub- 
sistence. The mechanic who gives his art as an in- 
heritance to his children has left them a fortune that is 
multiplied according to their number. It is not so 
with him, who, leaving ten acres of land, divides it 
among his children.' ' * Other rather remote references 
to this idea may be found. Locke approaches the 
theory, but does not state it. This aspect of the prob- 
lem and its allied theories of the demand and supply 
of labor, etc., belong to the new age. 

1 "The Spirit of Laws," Bk. 23, Ch. 29. 



INTRODUCTION 49 

Attention has already been called to the fact that the 
earlier age was under the economy of consumption; 
that the emphasis was laid upon use-values rather than 
upon exchange-values. This has been contrasted with 
the later principle that has been called the economy of 
production. Under such conditions it was natural that 
the literature before the Revolution should deal with 
the right of the laborer to subsistence ; while after the 
Revolution the notion of the right to labor should 
develop. 

The attempt to establish the time when the claim was 
first made of the " right to labor' ' will not be made 
here. 1 The dominant theory before the Revolution 
was the right to subsistence ; soon after it the new idea 
of the right to labor makes itself felt and heard. 
The claims of modern socialists of the right to labor, 
of the " right of labor to the full product," of the right 
of society to the "unearned increment," and of the 
exploitation of labor by capital through the taking of 
the "surplus- value" — these ideas are not clearly set 
forth in the earlier period. 

In the theory of the right to subsistence, distribution 
is made upon the basis of wants and leads to the most 
radical communism. The theory of the right to labor 
while making radical demands upon society would 
distribute goods according to services rendered; it 

1 Menger states it was first advanced by Fourier, op. cit. f pp. 16-17. 
£ 



50 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

demands, however, that each be given the opportunity 
to labor. 

The theory of the right to subsistence appears in 
many different forms during this earlier period. Locke, 
in his "Two Treatises of Government," states it as 
follows: "Whether we consider natural reason which 
tells us that men, being once born, have a right to their 
preservation and consequently to meat and drink and 
such other things as nature affords for their subsistence ; 
or, Revelation that gives an account of those grants 
God made of the world to Adam and his Sons; 'tis 
very clear that God, as King David said, hath given the 
earth to the children of men; given it to Mankind in 
common." * He further says : " This I dare boldly 
affirm, that the same rule of propriety, viz. that every 
man should have as much as he can make use of, would 
hold still in the world since there is land enough in the 
world to supply double its inhabitants." 

In the writings of Pufendorf the same reasoning may 
be found. He considers the right to subsistence a 
corollary to man's existence. " Since that God Al- 
mighty hath conferred on man the privilege of life, 
he hath at the same time supposed to have allowed 
him the use of everything necessary for the keeping 
and maintaining of that his gift." 2 Rousseau and 

1 "Two Treatises of Government," Part II, Ch. V. 

2 "Law of Nature and Nations," Bk. IV, Ch. III. 



INTRODUCTION 5 1 

Montesquieu both hold that society owes all that are 
born into it the means of subsistence. The same 
thing may be said of those writers more closely exam- 
ined in later chapters. Examination of the English 
law during the period here studied will show that 
the government acted upon the principle that all 
members of society have a right to subsistence. 
This was an underlying principle of the English 
poor-laws from Henry VIII down. Not nature, but 
society decides that there is a place at the board for 
every member of society. 1 

As opposed to the later theory of the right to labor, 
the duty of laboring was emphasized during the poor- 
law period. The connection between this duty and 
the right to subsistence was clearly appreciated. Many 
of the so-called poor-laws were vagrancy laws and 
contemplated the enforcement of this duty on the 
"sturdy vagabond." The modern problem of a lack 
of labor is less prominent in the earlier times. Idle- 
ness was viewed as a crime and the leisure class a 
menace and a burden to society. To-day the demand 
is that the upper-class labor; earlier the opprobrium 
of idleness attached to the lower-class alone. The 
more developed theories of the right to labor showed 
themselves when the natural rights philosophy had 
given rise to a whole group of rights supposed to inhere 

1 Cf. Malthus, "Essays," 1803, p. 5. 



52 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

in the individual, the existence of which needed no fur- 
ther evidence than the glittering generalizations of the 
metaphysicians. 

Few had based these rights of labor upon the theory 
that labor was a type of property. Locke puts it quite 
clearly. "For this labor being the unquestionable 
property of the laborer, no man can have a right to what 
that is joined to." * This is the clearest statement of 
the property quality in labor so far made. In the period 
of the "natural rights" philosophers appear statements 
of the right to labor based upon man's inherent right. 
"The right to labor is a natural right. It has been 
infringed by ancient institutions, but their infringe- 
ments have been justified neither by time nor by public 
opinion nor by the acts of authority which seem to have 
sanctioned them." 2 Beginning with the Revolution, 
the principle of the right to labor is clearly recognized. 
The practical expression is seen in the national work- 
shops of France of 1848. 3 

In the earlier period the social protest lacks definite- 
ness; it is general, vague, and visionary. With the 
Revolution came a decided change. It became a 
class-struggle. It meant the struggle of one class to get 
property that belonged to another class either through 

1 "Two Treatises of Government," Bk. II, Ch. V. 

2 Daire, (Euvres de Turgot, Vol. II, p. 306. 

3 Menger, op. cit., pp. 24-26. 



INTRODUCTION 53 

actual revolutionary violence or through proposed 
changes in the method of distribution. 1 The earlier 
Utopian socialism, Marx says, " belonged to the head of 
theorists." 2 It had no class-organization back of it. 
These early theories were embodied in the programme of 
no party, had the sanction of no congress, were de- 
fended by no conferences. The earlier writers had no 
more sign of a "school" than had Bacon in science or 
Rousseau in politics. Their projects, like the dreams 
of equality and liberty in the minds of liberalists, were 
many of them mere vague ideals in the minds of philoso- 
phers, some to be forgotten, others to go on into later 
systems of social thought. 

Partaking of the peculiarities here outlined, this earlier 
type of thought had great revolutionary possibilities. It 
was ready to break totally with the past, which is the 
essence of revolution. This earlier social theory rested 
upon an unshaken confidence in the masses. It was 
ready to undertake a radical reconstruction of society 
because of an unlimited confidence in the goodness and 
perfectibility of the ordinary man. 

1 Villey, "Le Socialisme contemporain," p. 4. 

2 Sombart, "Socialism," p. 106. 



CHAPTER II 

THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 

i. An idea has been gained in the preceding chapter 
of the attitude taken toward certain of the economic 
problems in England during the incipiency of the 
capitalistic era. The government tended to push itself 
far into the sphere of private industry, attempted by 
law to offset the influence of competition, and also to 
control and limit the power of monopoly. The new 
problems thrust before the public by the gradual 
passing of the old and the coming of the new age were 
met by a set of regulations at once detailed and com- 
prehensive. The widening of the control over the 
lands of England by private holders, introducing all 
the evils of " Enclosures," had called forth a very ex- 
tended interference of the state with the property-right 
and illustrates clearly the subjection of the individual 
to the demands of the social will. Briefly, these main 
facts have been set forth as a prelude to a discussion of 
the first socialistic theorist, Sir Thomas More. 

2. As the purpose of this essay is not biographical, 
only brief notice will be paid the famous author of 
"Utopia." Thomas More was born in London in 
1478 and died on the scaffold in 1535, a victim of the 

54 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 55 

intolerance and despotism of his royal master, Henry 
VIII. As a young man he was intended for orders, 
but later drifted into the law, in which profession he 
excelled. He held a variety of political positions of 
honor, being finally called to be the successor of the 
fallen Wolsey as Lord Chancellor of the realm of Eng- 
land in 1530. Disagreeing with the king over the 
Catholic question, he was charged and convicted of high 
treason for his refusal to take the oath of supremacy 
and was beheaded in the Tower. Thomas More, 
twice married, was survived by four children, some of 
whom contributed to his biography. 

There is little dispute as to the high place More holds 
among the great scholars and statesmen of his time. 
One of the strongest evidences of his genius is, of 
course, the " Utopia." The second feature worthy of 
mention is his intellectual environment. More's as- 
sociates were the ablest, most brilliant men of the 
Renaissance age. He was in the closest intimacy with 
Colet and Erasmus and somewhat less familiar with 
Linacre and Grocyn, — men who would be an ornament 
to any age and in any country. He was not only com- 
panion but also adviser to the king when the greatest 
minds, not only of England but of the Continent, graced 
the royal capital. He appeared amid those great intel- 
lectual characters whose glory added fame to the uni- 
versities of Oxford and Cambridge. Nor was More 



56 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

one of the lesser of this illustrious group. The opinions 
of his contemporaries show this. Seebohm says: 
"Whether it was thus at Oxford that Colet formed his 
high opinion of More is not known, but certain it is 
that he was long after wont to speak of More as the one 
genius of whom England could boast." l These 
early scholars literally fell in love with him. Of him 
Erasmus said, "A readier wit than he had ever met." 
Later writers pay equally flattering compliments to the 
genius of the great humanist. 

Thomas More was one of the brightest lights of the 
Renaissance age. He was typical of what was best in 
an age when southern culture was transforming north- 
ern manners. "More represented the highest perfec- 
tion discernible among the men of the Renaissance." 2 
The place More occupied in the state testifies to his 
peculiar political power. His first place of prominence 
was in the House of Commons as its youngest member. 
So powerful was his influence that he was feared by 
the king and finally driven out. His success before 
the bar needs no further evidence than the fact that he 
was followed by Linacre and Grocyn and the famous 
men of his time. 3 



1 Seebohm, " Oxford Reformers, John Colet, Erasmus, and 
Thomas More," London, 1887, p. 25. 

2 Lilly, "Renaissance Types," p. 309. 

3 Seebohm, "Oxford Reformers," p. 143; cf. Roper, op, tit., p. 5. 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 57 

Of the book which is made the subject of these 
chapters the translator and critic of the " Republic' ' 
says: "The ' Utopia' of Sir Thomas More is a surpris- 
ing monument of his genius and shows a reach of thought 
far beyond his contemporaries. In the first part the ele- 
ment of pessimism prevails largely. He sees, as Plato 
did, the extreme misery. To the eye of More the whole 
world was in a condition of dissolution and decay." 1 
The "Utopia" was translated into several languages 
at a time when printing was young and classical litera- 
ture and the brilliant writings of Renaissance Italy were 
pressing themselves upon the reading world. 2 

1 Introduction to "Republic," Jowett's translation, p. ccxxi. 

'Several editions of his famous work "Utopia" have been edited 
at different times. It first appeared at Lyons in 15 16, one year before 
Luther's advent in Germany. A second edition appeared in Lou- 
vain in 15 18. In 155 1 it was translated from the Latin into English 
by Ralph Robynson. This translation, made almost in the genera- 
tion of More, was so superior that since then it has been the standard 
and is still quoted as the most authentic. The second English edi- 
tion appeared in 1557. "Utopia" was put into Italian in 1548, 
appearing in Venice. It was translated into French in 1550, and 
into Spanish in 1636. Portions of the "Utopia" were printed in 
Brissot's "Bibliotheque," Vol. 9, 1772, the same volume where may 
be found Proudhon's famous dictum, "Le Propriete* est vol." Of 
recent editions one by T. F. Dibdin is well edited. This edition is 
quoted in this essay. A good reprint appears among "English Re- 
prints," edited by Edward Arber, London, 1869, Vol. 1. The most 
widely known is the John Morley edition. Few books have been so 
fortunate as to be translated into so many languages and to be so 
widely read, losing so little in freshness after the passage of nearly 
four centuries. 



58 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

More's " Utopia' ' embodies the social and political 
thought of a great scholar and profound student of 
social affairs, written at a time when few were seriously 
theorizing on social problems. During leisure snatched 
from the business of a foreign embassy, he conceived 
the notion of embodying his social and political ideas 
in the description of the imaginary commonwealth — 
"Utopia." * Of the "Utopia" Budaeus said to Lupse- 
tus: "We owe to Thomas More the discovery of 
' Utopia,' for he hath divulged to the world in our age 
a pattern for a happy life and perfect behavior. This 
age and our posterity will have this history as a seminary 
of most wholesome doctrine and from which they may 
transport and accommodate every one to their own 
cities and kingdoms these excellent ordinances and 
decrees." 2 As a contemporary Paludanus says of 
"Utopia" in a letter to Peter Giles: "You may see in 
1 Utopia' as in a looking-glass whatsoever belongeth to 
a perfect commonwealth." 3 " But the book that carry- 
eth the prize of all the books is 'Utopia.' He doth in 
it most lively and pleasantly paint forth such an ex- 
quisite platform, pattern, and example of a singular good 
commonwealth, as to the same neither the Lacedaemo- 
nians nor Athenians nor yet the best of all the others, 
the Romans, is comparable." 

1 Seebohm, op. tit., p. 337. 2 Cresacre More, op. cti., pp. 49-50. 

3 Ibid. p. 50. 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 59 

Of the literary style of the book little need be said. 
At the opening of English historical prose More dis- 
plays a fine literary taste. The "Utopia" is considered 
a fine piece of Latin prose. Of him Jowett says: 
"More was gifted with far more dramatic invention 
than any one that succeeded him with the exception of 
Swift. In the art of feigning he is a worthy disciple 
of Plato. We are fairly puzzled by his manner of 
mixing up real and imaginary characters." ! " Thomas 
More is marvellous in every respect ; for he confoundeth 
most eloquently and translateth most happily. Noth- 
ing is hard, nothing is rugged, nothing obscure. He is 
pure, he is elegant." 2 

The "Utopia" has great value as a piece of history, 
dealing with the events which its author saw in process 
about him. It is important to note that More was 
really the first English historian ; annalists and chroni- 
clers there had been, but no historians. This better 
qualified him as a social critic, and this feature in itself 
gives the "Utopia" a substantial worth. "One trust- 
worthy record we have; one that has ever been ap- 
pealed to as authentic ; as giving an unbiassed estimate 
of the miseries that were endured by the poor and of 

1 Plato, "Republic," Jowett's translation, Oxford, 1888. Intro- 
duction. 

2 Letter of Beatus Rhenanus, quoted by Cresacre More in " Life 
of Sir Thomas More," London, 1726, p. 21. 



60 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

the waste and pomp of the rich." * The importance of 
such pieces of contemporary literature as the " Utopia," 
"The Dialogues," 2 "Book of Surveying," 3 and the 
like cannot be easily overstated. Their references are 
not numerous nor their descriptions lengthy. There 
is, however, an air of genuineness about them that is 
convincing. " ' Utopia ' is worthy of multiformed study, 
not only from its reflection of the character and ready 
wit of its author; from its proposed solution of such 
social problems as overpopulation, its prevention, and 
the like, but also for its reference on the conditions of 
the poor, especially of the * bondmen,' the then dying- 
out villeinage of England." 4 

3. A remark worthy of note on the history of this 
type of literature is its relatively small amount as 
compared with certain other types. The two centuries 
contemplated by this study do, indeed, present many 
illustrations of a spirit of unrest and of protest against 
the existing social and economic order, and perhaps 
the expressions are freer and the changes suggested 
more radical than in other spheres. There is, however, 

1 Preface, " Dialogues of Starkey " ; see below. 

2 Thomas Starkey, " England in the Reign of King Henry the 
Eighth," a dialogue, etc. Early English Text Society. Extra Series 
12. 

3 Fitzherbert, " Boke of Surveying." 

4 Arber, "Reprints," p. 4; cf. Erasmus Letter to William Cope; 
"Papers and Letters of Henry VIII." 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 6 1 

a very meagre and fragmentary literature. In com- 
parison with those writings which may be classified as 
political the other seems very insignificant. One need 
only think of the voluminous works of Hobbes, Locke, 
Grotius, and the like to observe how the religious-politi- 
cal and not the social-economic concepts dominated 
the time. The economic view of the world-order had 
indeed not dawned. The treatment of social problems 
and of economic facts is far more unsystematic and 
veiled in the garb of fiction and romance than are the 
political treatises. 

As this study is an attempt to gather the earliest 
suggestions of socialistic doctrines from the thought 
and practice of the incipient stages of capitalistic pro- 
duction, a brief inquiry into the antecedents and the 
immediate environment of the thought of Thomas 
More, a set of events of considerable influence on social 
thought and leaving no slight mark on literature in 
general, will now be made. 

Among some of these influences of actual though 
of uncertain weight was the discovery of new lands and 
of primitive peoples. It seems true that the dis- 
covery of the new lands and the subsequent ex- 
ploration of the Americas put civilized man in close 
touch with primitive culture for the first time. Many 
illustrations may be found where different grades of 
culture met. Tacitus had studied and in his works 



62 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

described the German tribes, the "forest-children"; 
but these were quite far along before the degenerate 
Romans were given moral lessons, with their simple 
virtues as examples. Here, however, a return to nature 
and an imitation of simple manners and purer morals 
were suggested, much as they have been by compara- 
tively modern writers. Marco Polo interested mediae- 
val Europe in remote peoples with his magic stories of 
the dwellers in the far Orient; he described a people, 
however, probably older and more cultured than the 
populations he addressed in his descriptions of Tar- 
tary and the Far East. But with the discovery of 
America, the civilization of Europe was brought into 
touch with barbarism. Then it was that primitive 
peoples were made a subject of thought and the study 
of ethnology began. 

The influence of this new thought and of the habits 
and institutions of these primitive peoples was direct 
and marked upon Thomas More. The opening of the 
narrative in "Utopia" shows this. Raphael Hythlo- 
day, into whose mouth More puts the most important 
dialogue, was a native of the commercial country, 
Portugal. He relates how, hoping to gain knowledge 
of strange, remote peoples, he had joined himself to 
the explorer Amerigo Vespuce. It was, says More, 
on a voyage to the new world that those suggestions 
were gathered as to the proper ordering of a state which 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 63 

is so graphically described in the constructive part of 
"Utopia." * The work of More is one of the earliest 
to show this influence, and the age of discovery stimu- 
lated his fancy. He was the first to take the newly 
discovered primitive peoples and their institutions 
and their simple ways as a field for social study and a 
model for a possible regenerated society. 2 Like Saint 
Augustine he saw ancient civilization and its ideals 
going into decay about him. His was an attempt to 
call people back to the earlier culture, to a simple life. 
More's "Utopia" was the first and best romance of 
travel. 

To the literary antecedents and environments of 
Thomas More greater interest attaches. Of these 
sources unquestionably the most inspiring was the 

1 The French tended at first to idealize the American aborigines. 
As illustrations, see the " Voyage de Bourgainville " ; the plays of Mrs. 
Aphra Behn and kindred writings; to her is credited the term and 
concept "Le Bon Sauvage." The English attitude, so different, is 
seen in the writings of Swift ; # his satires are a bitter attack on man- 
kind in general. Of course this difference in attitude is seen in 
actual social relationships. The French have freely intermarried, the 
English did not. 

2 This type of teaching and writing marks the beginning of that 
method which developed into that introspective study of the pre- 
revolutionary period in France. It was an attempt to study man in 
his primitive and hence in his supposedly essential and unchanging 
qualities. This trend of thought was revolutionary in the extreme. 
Why preserve social conventions and government if happiness and 
goodness were both found in primitive conditions among savage folk ? 
Cf. Lichtenberger, op. cit., p. 28. 



64 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

" Republic" of Plato. Plato was the intellectual father 
of socialists as well as of philosophers. His "Repub- 
lic" was the model on which most later artificial social 
schemes were constructed. It furnished not merely 
the form of social control, but it also, as has been re- 
marked, determined the maimer of exposition. More's 
"Utopia" has, however, a large element of originality 
in it. 

It is in many ways unique. The general notions of 
the two men differ widely. Plato had a more general 
abstract end in view, he was seeking an explanation of 
abstract justice; More was interested in the practical 
solution of actual and present social problems and busied 
himself with plans to alleviate existing unfortunate 
conditions. He was busy examining the widening 
gap between rich and poor, and believed it possible to 
so organize society as to avoid the threatened evils. 
"More wishes to devise a system in which the poor 
shall not perish for want nor |he rich be idle through 
excess of their riches." * 

Of the same type of work was the "Republic" of 
Cicero. This work is far less idealistic. Cicero was a 
lawyer and a man of affairs, resembling Thomas More ; 
while Plato was a dreamer, poet, and philosopher. 
Hence, Cicero's social writings are matter-of-fact and 

1 Arber, "English Reprints," p. 5. 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 65 

practical, dealing with the details of political structure 
and of the governing bodies instead of treating the more 
abstract principles of social life and organization. 
As with Plato and More, property and its validity and 
utility are discussed, but far more superficially. In 
Book IV, § 5, Cicero refers to Plato's scheme of com- 
munism, which he condemns. He comments on the 
extreme idealism of Plato and criticises the " Republic" 
as shadowy and imaginary. With far less attention to 
the ideas of reform, Cicero sets before him the task ! 
of treating the historical development of an actual 
commonwealth. Cicero discusses in a cursory manner 
a state of nature where man once dwelt without sin and 
fault in a state of perfect equality. He holds that the 
rise of social institutions brought inequality and many 
social wrongs. 2 

Another book bearing resemblance to More's " Utopia" 
is by the more famous author, Saint Augustine, "The 
City of God." 3 "The City of God" was written upon 
the final capture of Rome by the barbarians and was 
inspired by the extreme sadness and by the unspeakable 
loss occasioned by that calamity. It was written when, 
to all appearances, civilization had failed and was 
about to be extinguished. Written by the great monk 
to defend the Christian teachings, the book presents a 

1 Bk. V, Ch. 2-3. » Bk. V, Ch. 2. ■ « De civitate Dei." 

F 



66 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

most interesting picture in contrast with the unfortunate 
scenes that surround the writer. "He sits, as it were, 
amid the ruins of the City of Rome and beholds a vision 
of the City of God descending from Heaven, the new 
Jerusalem, which was to take the place of the worn-out 
social organization which has succumbed alike to the will 
of God and the violence of men." * As an attempt at 
a philosophy of history, "The City of God" reveals the 
perfect social state as one where love and holiness rule 
instead of the false system set forth in Pagan philosophy. 
Later writings of a similar nature which mark the 
close of the scholastic era stimulated More. These 
earlier writers were not as conscious of the problem as 
was Thomas More ; in fact, it had not taken so clear a 
form. 2 Some writers who preceded More in England, 
as John Ball and Langland, seemed to have grasped 
the problem and to have seen the large economic 
factor in the social and ethical questions which forms 
one of the corner-stones of socialistic philosophy. 
What they treat in poetry, More treats in a more matter- 
of-fact manner in his prose works. The books by 
Erasmus 3 are highly satirical, and are not comparable 
to the "Utopia." 

1 Preface to " The City of God," by F. R. M. Hitchcock, p. ix. 

1 Among these writers fall John Wyclif , Machiavelli, Erasmus, and 
the like. 

3 "Praise of Folly," "Christian Prince"; cf. Gibbins, "English 
Social Reformers," p. i. 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 67 

Such were some of the sources from which Thomas 
More drew suggestions and inspiration. Few had so 
far discussed the social situation in its economic aspects. 
Writers had appeared who dealt with various sides of 
economic life. 1 Others had discussed the problem of 
property; 2 the prince had been dealt with in con- 
nection with the control of the commonwealth ; 3 refer- 
ences had been made to poverty and its evils (in poetry) ; 4 
society had been bitterly satirized for its foibles and 
follies ; 5 violent attacks had been made on the social 
order. 6 None, however, had taken so broad an outlook 
on social life; none had displayed such keen insight 
into social problems nor given so sane judgments nor 
seen so clearly the economic causes of social evil as 
had the great humanist — Thomas More. He dis- 
played a power, rare in any age, of looking out of his 
environment and beyond his time. He was gifted with 
the capacity to see that another and better condition of 
society was possible. He realized he was not in the 
best possible world and produced a scheme which he 
believed would allay social unrest. About him were 
appearing new social conditions and their problems, of 
which it was natural to inquire the meaning. The 
formation of classes, the constantly widening gap be- 

1 Nicholas Oresme. 4 Ball, Langland, Chaucer. 

3 Wyclif . 5 Erasmus, " Praise of Folly." 

■ Machiavelli, "The Prince." e Huss and the Bohemian Revolt. 



68 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

tween rich and poor, the accumulating evils of poverty, 
were growing only too apparent. These constituted 
conditions inviting the study and making their demand 
upon the ingenuity of the philosopher and of the prac- 
tical statesman. 

4. Back of every socialistic propaganda, and underly- 
ing every radical social movement, will be found three 
facts: There must exist, in the first place, social in- 
equality and apparent abuses and wrongs. There will, 
again, be a certain class, more or less conscious of these 
conditions ; while in the third place there are required 
philosophic minds to observe the conditions, to point 
out causes and the way to a remedy. These conditions 
existing, reform or revolution is very apt to ensue. 
Socialism, then, will flourish in proportion as the con- 
sciousness grows that there is something vitally wrong 
in the industrial organization of society. 

The appearance of " Utopia' ' marks the beginning of 
the modern social problems as they show themselves 
in the incipient stages of the capitalistic period. Social 
movements may be detected as the old order is passing 
and the new order is appearing. This new period is 
marked by the growth of distinct and self-conscious 
classes. This development of classes, whose lines of 
cleavage are economic and industrial, forms one of the 
most important social features of that age and marks 
what has already been pointed out as being a chief 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 69 

feature in modern socialism — the opening of the 
" class-struggle.' ' The mediaeval society with its pe- 
culiar structure and self-sufficient groups with their 
narrow interests gradually yielded to a wider social 
unity. 

This period also witnessed the attempt to more and 
more centralize and socialize control through the regu- 
lations of the general government. The relations of 
these classes slowly coming out of the dissolving feudal 
society ; the conflicts they wage in the industrial sphere ; 
the powers each is to gain in law and the position they 
are to hold in the customs of the land — these now 
begin to show themselves as vital factors in the social 
problem. 

The date of this evolution of a class-consciousness 
and the appearance of recognized class-interests may 
be placed in the fifteenth century. This marks rather 
definitely the transition from the mediaeval into the 
modern period. The earliest assignable date for the 
appearance of this process of differentiation is that of 
the " Great Plague,'' in 1348. 

There are, it may be remarked, three very commonly 
accepted divisions of industrial society. These three, 
the land-holding, capitalist, and labor classes, arising 
from the inherent nature of the industrial process, 
have been accepted as valid divisions of society, whose 
interests are very clearly antagonistic. The Plague 



JO SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

did very much in England to bring into clearer view 
the lines separating these classes. 

The " Great Plague," visiting England in 1348-1349, 
carried off about one-half of the population. It came 
to England at a time when the agricultural interests 
were still of first importance. The event occurred, 
however, when the feudal system had been so far dis- 
turbed as to make the landlord- class quite dependent 
upon a separate labor-class. The immediate effect of 
the plague was to produce a scarcity of labor, which fact 
showed more clearly the place the laborer had filled in 
society. It precipitated, in an acute form, one of the 
problems of the modern day — a bad distribution of 
labor both between localities and among the differ- 
ent industries. The laborers, taking advantage of the 
scarcity of labor, asked for increased wages. The 
landlord- class and its interests then appear in direct 
antagonism to the interests of labor and of the labor- 
ing class. Legislation was enacted to keep wages 
down. 

At this time also appears the capitalist- class with its 
peculiar demands. The conflict of interests of the land- 
owners as against the capitalists appears in their com- 
petition for that labor which before had been employed 
on the land. "The landowners began to fear their 
lands would not be cultivated and were compelled to 
buy labor at a higher price than would have been 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND J\ 

given at a time when the necessity of the laborer to 
the capitalist was more obscured." l The " Statute 
of Laborers" is one of the earliest and most noted 
instances where a legislative body was called upon to 
solve the rate-of-wages problem. Here was the state 
interfering with the economic law, according to which 
scarcity would cause a rise in price. In this case may 
be found many of the features of modern conditions. 
Here was unity of purpose in a class — the struggle for 
higher wages. Labor also was becoming more mobile, 
to be controlled by subsequent legislation. These 
laborers, gradually growing into a class, were at the same 
time being freed from the land with its benefits and its 
limitations. 

What took place in France during the Revolution 
and in Prussia after the battle of Jena, 2 occurred so 
much earlier in England. "The class of free laborers 
and tenants and laborers who had commuted their 
services were oppressed, and the ingenuity of the law- 
yers who were employed as stewards on each manor 
was exercised in trying to restore to the landowners 
that customary labor whose loss was now so severely 
felt. The result was a gradual union of laborers and 
tenants against landowners and employers — the begin- 
ning of a social struggle in which we recognize the 

1 Gibbin, "Industry in England," N. Y., 1898, p. 153. 
* Marking the humiliation of Prussia, 1806. 



72 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

unfortunate modern tendency of a hostile confronta- 
tion of labor and capital." * 

In this process of segregation of classes, the increase 
of large farming played an important part. This 
change in the nature of farming led to a vast increase 
of laborers who gradually became detached from the 
soil and separated from the tenant class. 

Two leading facts tended to produce this result. 
In the first place the growth in the size of the farms led 
to an increase of stock-farming or of the application of 
the capitalistic methods to agriculture ; in this case large 
amounts of capital were invested by the holder with the 
result of giving a large employment to wage-labor. 
This led to the growth of an independent labor-class 
and also a type of agricultural capital dependent upon 
this same labor-body. The type of extensive farming 
was largely devoted to pasturage, and thus a less demand 
for labor was created than existed under intensive cul- 
tivation. Thus there was a larger body of free labor 
than the existing industries could absorb and there 
followed, what so frequently follows invention and 
radical industrial changes, a class with no land and 
no market for their only commodity, — labor. For 
the growth of this separate labor-class meant the growth 
of a body of men with nothing to sell but their labor, 

1 Gibbin, op. cit., p. 154. Cf. Jessop, "Coming of the Friars," 
N. Y., 1889, pp. 254, 256. 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 73 

and this in a time when, to an ever increasing extent as 
feudal institutions vanished, some equivalent must be 
offered for a share in the social wealth. 

More and more through the fifteenth and sixteenth 
centuries were the old feudal and manorial relationships 
breaking down. Slowly the personal bonds which 
held servant to master, through a recognition of mutual 
duties, were being weakened, and the money relation- 
ship was taking their place. Through commutations 
of various kinds and in many spheres the "cash nexus," 
as Carlyle called it, came to displace the milder, more 
humane, domestic relationships of the earlier times. As 
these classes grew wider, there appears a horizontal 
stratification of society ; " Feudalism was an aggregation 
of local groups." ! This type of organization must 
vanish before any class-organization could appear. 
With the break-up of this feudal organization from the 
time of Richard II, the way was being cleared for a 
new classification. Employer and employed, landlord 
and tenant, laborer and capitalist — these new terms 
creep into the parlance of the times, and these new 
classes slowly appear above the surface. 

A feature of this period very early discernible is 
the passing of dispossessed tenants and laborers over 
into a permanent class. This condition is necessary 

1 Cunningham, "The Growth of English Industry and Commerce 
in Modern Times," Cambridge, 1892, pp. 338, 339. 



74 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

to any effective social movement. Where conditions 
are such that the members cannot move into a higher 
nor sink to a lower sphere, there is possible a 
class solidarity, and effective social agitation may 
follow. 

Among the causes operating in the age of More and 
which were effective in producing conditions of social 
unrest, none was more important than the " enclosures.' ' 
It was this social change, going on so rapidly in the time 
of More, that he so bitterly condemns, and for which he 
seeks a remedy in law. The general attitude toward 
enclosures is cleverly put by an eighteenth-century 
pamphleteer: * "The enclosures of commons and com- 
mon-fields has not been more deprecated by one set 
than by another. The landowner, seeing the great 
increase of rent made by his neighbor, conceives 
the desire of following his example; the village is 
alarmed; the cottager not only expects to lose his 
commons but the inevitable consequence of a diminution 
of his labor, being obliged to quit his place in search of 
work." The important fact here noted is the separa- 
tion of the laborer from the land with the increase of 
that class whose members have no land nor access to 
any. "I have seen some small farmers in enclosed 
places, starving with their families till necessity had 

1 "The Advantages and Disadvantages of Enclosure of Waste 
Land," A Country Gentleman^ p. 36. 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 75 

driven them to quit their farms and betake themselves 
to labor." 

Of the different types of enclosing, that of the commons 
caused the most hardship and was most productive of 
a landless labor-class. It was against this form of 
enclosure the most complaint was made and that led 
to the protest and opposition of Thomas More. 

The rate of enclosure differed widely in the two 
periods. "It was most rapid in the periods from 1470 
till 1530 and from 1760 to 1830." 1 Ashley throws the 
emphasis on the earlier period. " The period may be 
defined more definitely as that lying between 1470 
and 1600; with the understanding that during the 
first sixty years, from 1470 to 1530, the transformation 
was far more violent." 2 During this period it was the 
common land that was in question, whose enclosure was 
most effective in creating social unrest. 3 The loss of 
this land was of importance to the laborers who, while 
earning wages, had also rights on the commons. 4 The 
evils of enclosures had been most apparent with that 
growing body of half-dependent, wage-earning class 

1 Gibbins " Industry in England," p. 215. 

2 Ashley, Introduction to " English Economic History and Theory/' 
N. Y., 1894, Vol. II, pp. 286-287. 

5 Warner, "Landmarks in Industrial History," London, 1899, 

P- 139- 

4 Prothero, " Pioneers and Progress of English Farming," London, 
1888, p. 21. 



J6 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

that was just passing over into a lifelong propertyless 
labor-body. "The two classes that eventually suffered 
most were ' common field farmers,' to use the eighteenth- 
century description, and the cottagers or emancipated 
serfs, who had no share in the agrarian community, 
but lived as hired laborers supplementing their wages 
by keeping cattle on the rough pasture." * Up till the 
close of the fifteenth century not many laborers were 
doomed to a life of labor with no by-industry. There 
had been at their disposal a certain amount of land 
where at least their cattle might graze. "We are not 
to conceive of these laborers as a body of men in regu- 
lar employment at fixed wages; the number of per- 
manent laborers on the demesnes seems to have been 
small. ,, 2 When, however, the process of enclosures 
had progressed, these half -laborers, half -farmers, robbed 
of their right to the common lands and deprived of the 
labor furnished by the farmers, must leave the condition 
of cotters and join the proletariat class. 3 

The effect of this process was to develop this class 
of labor, free from the obligations of feudal times, but 
leaving the laborers without the support and protection 
then insured. "The various 'Statutes of Laborers' 
which from this day appear on the English statute 
books were a confession that the day when the lords of 
the manors could require the personal services of their 
1 Prothero, op. cit. } pp. 20-21. 2 Ashley, op. cit. } p. 267. s Ibid. 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND yj 

tenants in return for the lands they held, had gone." ■ 
It was from this class of dispossessed cotters and half- 
dependent laborers that the ranks of the poor were 
swelled and a body of vagrants created. It was this 
condition that called forth those laws for the better- 
ment of the labor-class in the reign of Henry VIII and 
subsequently. It was English society, marked by 
some such features, that formed the field of study to 
Thomas More. 

It has been remarked that the discussion of modern 
socialism is chiefly concerned with the method of pro- 
duction known as capitalistic. 2 Socialism, having to 
do with the distribution of surplus-values, produced 
under a complicated system of division of labor and 
function, giving rise to both personal and functional 
distribution, must of necessity contemplate that vast 
increase of capital upon which division of labor depends 
and which so complicates the industrial process. The 
age of More witnessed a very great growth of industrial 
capital. As has been intimated, capital was accumulat- 
ing not only for purposes of trade and commerce as 
evidenced by the organization of trade companies; 



1 Denton, "England in the Fifteenth Century," 1888, p. 113. 

2 The importance of the study of the early English conditions as 
an introductory study in socialism will appear clearer when it is 
remembered that from this field Marx drew his material for his 
system. 



78 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

capital was also being applied to agriculture and to 
manufacture. 1 

The flowing of capital into these channels had certain 
results on labor already pointed out. It had, further- 
more, the effect of converting agriculture from what 
may be called subsistence into capitalistic or profit- 
making farming. This meant that where before there 
had been an intensive culture for home-consumption 
there now developed extensive culture for the market, 
this also growing more extended. This, in turn, led to 
a profit-making farming-class, and to the creation of a 
surplus-value to go to swell the fund of capital, instead 
of going, as previously, to the support of a more crowded 
laboring population on the farms. Thus came about 
the growth of capital, saving the surplus-value on one 
hand, and driving away the cotter-class into vagrancy 
or into a propertyless labor-class on the other hand. 
Here the modern socialist philosophy and protest could 
take its rise. At this point the historical socialism of 
Karl Marx can be said to begin. Here the capitalistic 
exploitation, if such a thing exists, may be first noted 
in English industrial history. 

5. It is not strongly insisted that the first condition 
necessary to a social revolution, i.e. the existence of a 
class keenly conscious of social wrongs, had very far 

1 Economic Review, Vol. 6, p. 28. Cf. List, "Das Nationale 
System der Politischen Oekonomie," 1845, Ch. I. 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 79 

developed in England by the age of Thomas More. 
It may be safely urged, however, and certain facts in 
evidence have been presented, that such a class was in 
process of formation and that thus early are the incipient 
stages of a class-struggle along economic lines. The 
second condition laid down above also was presented ; 
viz., the hardships and misery more or less obviously 
connected with social injustice and wrong. As a 
mouthpiece of this voiceless class, Thomas More looked 
out on certain evils in English society, the chief of 
which will be here briefly portrayed. 

The rapid displacement of the cotter population 
through the process of enclosures, produced an abnor- 
mal quantity of free labor and led to the impoverish- 
ment of the cotters. This fruitful cause of discontent 
and social unrest had been operating for a century, but 
it had become much more active during the lifetime 
of More. Laws were passed against this evil, and in 
favor of those most injured in the process; but these 
had been largely evaded or ignored, and the injury 
increased as time went on. The laws point out the 
process of enclosures as the " decay of the people"; 
it had turned many poor laborers into vagabonds; 
it turned the peaceful cotter out of his home and com- 
pelled him to seek labor elsewhere or to join the 
increasing army of beggars. 

Fitzherbert in his "Book of Surveying" discusses 



80 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

the hardships of sixteenth-century life arising from the 
enclosures. He relates how in the olden time the 
condition of the cotter was so much better; then all 
the land lay in common and undivided as pasture. 
"Then was their tenement much better chepe than they 
are now ; for a most part the lords hath enclosed a great 
part of their waste grounds and straitened their tenants 
of their commons therein ; also they have enclosed their 
desmesne lands and meadow and kept them in severalty 
so that the tenants have no commons with them 
therein." 1 

The complaints became loud and bitter. The at- 
tempts at a remedy through the statutes were ineffec- 
tive. Attacks were made on the landed aristocracy in 
much the same spirit that the modern socialist condemns 
the greed of the capitalist. One took the form of an 
agrarian uprising; the other produces an industrial 
disturbance. An advance of wages to offset the effect 
of the enclosures would have been suitable remedy; 
this did not find place and in the transition great hard- 
ship, it seems, was endured. "But during the busy 
seasons of the year a score or two of men and women 
would be engaged; and the wages then earned would 
be an important addition to the produce which they 

1 Scrutton, " Commons and Common Fields, or the History and 
Policy of Laws relating to Commons and Enclosures in England," 
Cambridge, 1887, p. 79. 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 8 1 

gained from their small plots and from their rights of 
commons." * 

A second feature in the situation deserves emphasis 
here. The course of events that had brought about the 
enclosures had the further effect of raising considerably 
the rents and also of driving up the level of prices. 
"With the demand for land and the almost universal 
rise of prices came an increased rent ; the small free- 
holders and those that lived by the plough found it 
harder and harder to gain a living ; the poor men who 
relied upon the commons for the grazing of their one 
cow saw it surcharged by the sheep of wealthy graziers, 
enclosed by rich nobles for their sheep farms, or con- 
verted into a park for their deer." 2 

On the problem of the actual change of wages that 
occurred at this time, no definite statements can be 
made. The continued researches made by eminent 
scholars into the history of wages and their variations 
have brought forth very little that is conclusive. The 
problem becomes too complicated with so many vari- 
ants. The rate of wages, unit of payment, value of 
money, length of day, standard of prices, and, finally, the 
standard of living of the time varying as they do, a 
definite solution is scarcely to be expected. One thing 
seems certain, that no rise of wages took place commen- 
surate with the losses experienced by the less advantaged 

1 Ashley, op. cit., p. 267. 2 Scrutton, op. cit., p. 75. 

G 



82 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

classes. Despite the attempts at betterment, the peti- 
tions sent in for legislation and the good intentions of 
the Tudor monarchy, conditions grew worse during the 
last half of the fifteenth and the first half of the six- 
teenth century. 1 It was some such conditions, then, that 
met the eye of Thomas More and suggested the "Uto- 
pia," the first work written in the modern age that saw 
the roots of social evil reaching the soil of economic 
maladjustment. 

6. It is a contention of this thesis that socialism in 
many of its phases and as presented by its earlier ad- 
vocates is at once a revolutionary and a reactionary 
system of thought. It will be shown in a later chapter 
that the fundamental principles of eighteenth-century 
socialism were deduced from a study of the qualities 
of primitive man. The strongest defenders of the 
communistic features of socialism fall back to the con- 
ditions of primitive society where, it is contended, the 
right of property did not exist. 2 The same habit of 
mind is here attributed to Sir Thomas More. He was 
in many ways a decided reactionary. He looks rather 
to the past than to the future. He seeks rather to re- 
turn to the simple, happy past than to reach an ideal 
future. The place of More, then, can be best appreciated 
by noticing his relation to the large, progressive move- 

1 Cunningham, op. cit. t pp. 348-368. 

1 Kautsky, " Vorlaufer des neueren Socialismus," Einleitung, p. 1. 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 83 

ments then in process about him. His work will be 
seen as one of restoration rather than of construction. 
The first writer who broke with the past and was 
constructive was Campanella, a forerunner of the later 
constructive reformers. 1 The attitude of More, in this 
respect, may be studied in relation to some of the 
very significant facts of his day, — the growth of private 
property, the Revival of Learning, and the Reformation. 

As has been indicated, More was one of the bitterest 
opponents of enclosures, then so limiting the use of 
common lands in England. Complaints had begun to 
be loud and bitter by the opening of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, and More joined in the protest, not against the ille- 
gality, but against the social wrong of the enclosures. 2 
He hoped to stem the tide of economic change that 
had set in toward a capitalistic method of production 
and a more individualistic system of property control. 

The process of enclosures was only one of many 
phases of the evolution of the system of private property. 
This meant the destruction of communal rights and the 
coming-in of individualism with a vengeance. From 
this point of view one can understand More's tendency 
toward communism. He stood out against the radical 
social changes in structure and in industrial method 

1 Franck, " R£formateurs et publicistes de PEurope," Paris, Vol. II, 
pp. 6-7. 

' Denton, op. cit., pp. 160-161. 



84 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

which were going on about him. He wished a return 
to an earlier, and hence a simpler, form of social life. 
He was in favor of the milder, more humane spirit of 
manorial control where "every rood maintained its 
man" and "health and plenty blessed the laboring 
swain." More advocated a return to the communal 
rights of the cotter system. He also favored limita- 
tions on the introduction of capital and encouraged the 
development of agriculture. 

The position More took to the mighty religious 
movements of his day displays also his conservative 
spirit and his regard for tradition. Regarding the 
Reformation, More was an ultra-conservative. He 
remained a devout Catholic, refused to acknowledge 
Henry VIII as head of the Church of England, and 
suffered martyrdom for his course. Against this re- 
ligious innovation he was as reactionary as he was 
regarding economic changes. The Reformation meant 
the breaking down of feudalism on its religious side, 
and More opposed this change with vigor. 1 

More's attitude toward the New Learning seems at 
first sight rather inconsistent. He was a most devoted 
advocate of the Renaissance, and was chiefly influential 
in leading Henry VIII to introduce the classics and clas- 
sical culture into England. The New Learning had, 

1 Tulloch, " Leaders of the Reformation, Luther, Calvin, Latimer, 
Knox," Edinburgh, i860, p. 308. 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 85 

however, showed such tendencies and been so opposed 
by the church and the conservative element that More's 
ardor in espousing the new movement seems strange. 
In Italy it had led to a new type of infidelity and a denial 
of the Catholic faith. 1 In Germany it had stood op- 
posed, not alone to the Catholic power, but to religious 
faith itself. 2 In England it had been opposed by the 
clerical authorities and by the councils of Oxford and 
Cambridge, and was only introduced through the efforts 
and influence of such men as Linacre, Colet, and 
Thomas More. 3 

When More had come to power and influence in 
England, learning had ceased to be merely a handmaid 
of the church and had come to have a broader cultural 
purpose. 4 Of this type of movement More was one of 
the most important popularizers and patrons. He saw 
in it no enemy of the church nor of religion. He saw 
in the Revival of Learning a new force for the enlarging 
and enriching of life. The chief feature of the Renais- 
sance was the return to ancient models. The Revival 
of Learning meant the reversion of Europe's best 
thought to the ancient classics and the ancient civili- 

1 Seebohm, op. cit., p. 368. 

2 Paulsen, " Geschichte der Hoheren Schulen Deutschlands," 
Einleitung. 

3 Einstein, " Italian Renaissance in England," N. Y., 1902, p. 
44. 

* Ibid., p. 46. 



86 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

zation. In this, as in other instances cited, tradition 
dominates the mind of the great humanist. 

There was nothing, therefore, inconsistent in the 
support More gave the Renaissance and his opposition 
to the Reformation. He did not desert Christian for 
Pagan principles. He did not ally himself with Machia- 
velli and his theories to the denial of the ethics and 
politics of the Christian Fathers. Neither More nor 
his close associate, Erasmus, accepted the ethical nor 
the political conclusions of the new doctrine, but were in 
direct opposition to the Machiavellian school and re- 
buked the attacks on Christian morals. The case is 
well stated by Seebohm: "And possibly it may have 
been in some measure due to their efforts that a century 
later, Hugo Grotius, the father of international law, 
was able in the name of Europe to reject the Machia- 
vellian theory as one that would not work and to adopt 
in its place the Christian theory as the one that was 
sanctioned by nature and upon which it alone was safe 
to found the polity of the civilized world." * More 
sees and presents the place of religion and morals in 
the social scheme ; instead of abandoning these forces, 
he is the first writer of a purely social treatise to make 
emphatic their importance in social life. He sees society 
as a result of the blending of the two great forces, the 

1 Seebohm, op. cit., p. 369. 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 87 

Christian and the Pagan, which had come down from 
the classical age. 

In relation to these great movements, then, More was 
a decided react ionaire. He opposed the Reformation 
because he believed the church should be reformed 
from within and not from without. "The next agents 
were the Humanists or reformers who, like More, 
Erasmus, and Colet, were content to reform the church 
from within, to purge away the grossness that had 
been contracted by the cunning and superstition of 
long ages and to attempt the splendid Utopia of a 
purified church, founded along the old lines, with a 
spiritual Caesar at its head who would be a Christian 
Aurelius, a virtuous, wise, and paternal monarch who 
might counsel and guide the soul of a regenerated 
Christendom." ! With the utmost sincerity More 
turned his attention backward toward classic models 
and to the literature, art, and manners of the past. 2 

7. The last important feature here noted in the en- 
vironment of More is the decline of the controlling and 
regulating influence of the church. For long centuries 
the church had exercised a softening influence on the 
lives, actions, and ideas of men. It had fostered that 

1 Thorold Rogers, "Six Centuries of Work and Wages," London, 
1894, pp. 382-383. 

2 Lilly, "Renaissance Types," p. 319. Kautsky, "Thomas Morus 
und seine Utopie, mit einer historischen Einleitung," Internationale 
Bibliothek, Vol. 5, p. 24. 



88 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

spirit of asceticism which played so large a part in pre- 
serving the peace and order of Europe. It had con- 
stantly turned men's minds from the material to the 
spiritual. It had enjoined men to lay up their treasures 
in heaven. Under this influence the hold on property 
had been in many instances weakened; in others 
abandoned. The spirit of Christian charity stood 
opposed to the growing pecuniary spirit; and self- 
abnegation to selfishness. For centuries the church 
had taught men to deny themselves temporal gains 
that spiritual blessings might be secured. It had in- 
culcated the spirit of brotherly love, which, in the nature 
of the case, did much to soften the struggle for existence. 
Monastic life, though perverted, had taught its lessons, 
and through canon law and precept had checked the 
spirit of rapacity. Inequality and poverty had, in the 
earlier times, not the power to arouse the unfortunate, 
nor develop unrest into revolution. The poor were 
either given aid to alleviate their sufferings, or were, 
through the promises and consolations of religion, rec- 
onciled to their lot. 

While poverty was considered a blessing and self- 
denial a cardinal virtue, there would be no social prob- 
lem nor conflict of classes. The change in belief came 
about the time of More. It was induced by great 
transformations in the industrial world. It was hast- 
ened by the influences of Humanism and of southern 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 89 

culture. When, through the Reformation, the church 
lost its power as a religious force, it also declined 
in political and social spheres. "The moral suasion 
of the church in protesting against slavery, in securing 
the weekly rest for the serf, or of seeking the welfare of 
the pilgrim was no longer the chief factor in introducing 
improved conditions for industry and trade." 1 

Many evidences might be given of the decline of this 
ascetic spirit so marked in the later Middle Ages. 
The teachings of John Huss in Bohemia furnish the 
most striking illustration. The new theory showing 
itself at this time taught that poverty was an unnatural 
condition ; that to be poor was a misfortune ; that to 
produce such conditions was an act of injustice and 
oppression. " But he [Huss] also won over the common 
people by preaching that the goods of the clergy were 
the goods of the poor, by which the latter ought to be 
maintained, and that poverty was an evil only tolerated 
by God and for which the wealthy classes were respon- 
sible." 2 No clearer denial of the old doctrines can be 
found than the teachings of Huss in Germany and no 
more marked expression of its effects. When abnega- 
tion had come to mean only a duty of the poorer laymen 
while the opulent clergy grew ever richer; when the 

1 Cunningham, op. cit. 

2 " Und die Kirche, die grosze ausgleichende Macht friiherer Zeit, 
war unter alien habsiichtigen Gewalten die erste." Stern, "Die Soci- 
alisten der Reformationszeit," Berlin, 1S83, p. 6. 



90 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

clergy had ceased to be shepherds of the flocks and came 
to be wolves to devour the sheep ; then had the church 
itself abandoned its earlier pretensions in thought and 
action and led to a general break down of its influence. 

In England near the close of the fourteenth century 
occurred the famous Peasants' Revolt. Many causes 
have been given of their ill-starred attempt at revolution ; 
unjust taxation with new forms of discrimination, 
cruelty in collections, and kindred abuses seem to have 
helped to cause the uprising. It is natural, however, 
to seek a theoretic basis for this as for other social revolu- 
tions. The ideas which had inspired the rebellion both 
in England and in Germany were laid at the door of 
Wyclif. Out of the church itself came these revolu- 
tionary theories and they were not of an economic nature 
in the beginning. They began rather in religious hetero- 
doxy. " We can readily understand how Wyclif 's adver- 
saries could point to these events with a malicious satis- 
faction, and give out that these were the fruits of his 
destructive opposition to the doctrines and institutions 
of the church and especially of the itinerant preachers 
who went about everywhere stirring up the people.' ' * 

As a result of this decline of old ideals the age of 
More was marked by the appearance of a new test of 

1 Lechler, "John Wyclif and his English Precursors," London, 
1878, Vol. II, p. 223. Cf. Kautsky, "Communism in Central Europe 
in the Time of the Reformation," London, 1897, p. 45. 



THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ENGLAND 91 

welfare. It saw a rapid growth of material wealth and 
well-being and the multiplication of worldly pleasures. 
This spirit is quite evident in " Utopia' ' ; it can be seen 
in other writings ; it evidences itself in the laws of Eng- 
land in the period of the Tudors directed against luxury. 
" Material prosperity is in short Machiavelli's idea of 
the chief conscious basis of political life among men. 
How far this conception is from that of the ancient 
philosophers, that the state is an institution devoted to 
the moral and intellectual uplifting of the community, 
and from the mediaeval notion that the end of the state 
is primarily to smooth men's way to eternal salvation, 
it is not necessary further to demonstrate." ' 

ft lore's " Utopia" takes this same view of life and of 
the state. In this it typifies later socialism which con- 
templates the conversion of the state into an economic 
and industrial agency. It is hoped that industrial con- 
ditions may be equalized and improved through this 
change. This means to transform the state from a 
political and civil into an industrial organism. It is the 
realization of the German idea to change the police 
state (Polizei-staat) into the cultural organization 
(Kultur-staat). The state is still to work out justice; 
but under the conception that justice and injustice are 
economic and not civil categories. 

1 Dunning, "History of Political Theories, Ancient and Mediaeval," 
N. Y., 1902, p. 306. 



CHAPTER III 

THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 

Part I 

i. The "Utopia" merits careful analysis as one of 
the earliest expressions of the consciousness of social 
wrong and a complete scheme for social reorganiza- 
tion. It contains the criticism of a great philosopher 
on the industrial and social changes marking the open- 
ing of the age of capitalism. 1 It is a commentary on 
existing society, full of keen criticism, severe satire, and 
wise suggestion. No clear lines are drawn between 
political and industrial problems. It deals, as did the 
works of Plato, with the broad problems of human 
welfare and the best means to their solution. The 
" Utopia' ' 2 is a clear reflection of English society during 
the period of the great Tudor king. More makes his 
arraignment of society the more severe by throwing it 
into contrast with the ideal commonwealth of "Utopia." 
He attacks society both in general and in particular. 
He condemns those institutions from which seem to 

1 Marx, " Capital " ; Aveling, English edition. " The modern history 
of capital dates from the creation in the sixteenth century of a world- 
embracing commerce and a world-embracing market," p. 123. 

2 More, "Utopia." References are made to edition of 1878 by 
T. F. Dibdin, Boston. 

92 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 93 

emanate social wrongs. He shows the evils of low 
wages and the oppression of rich employers. He 
denies property rights in general and its forms of money 
and land in particular. He rebukes the ruling class 
for their personal laxity and for their severity and cruelty 
to others. Existing conditions deterrent of human wel- 
fare are condemned whether in church, state, or in 
society at large. Under the transparent garb of fiction, 
abuses prevalent then, as now, he bitterly satirized. 
Certain principles of social and political theory are set 
forth with a clearness and insight which make much 
modern criticism seem ancient. 

2. The work on " Utopia" is divided into two parts, 
designated as Books I and II. The first part, Book 
I, is relatively short and is introductory to the major 
part found in Book II. Its purpose is largely critical, 
though it abounds in suggestions of possible reform and 
has many references to the land of Utopia, set forth with 
great skill, with the view to awakening interest in the 
constructive material to follow in Book II. On every 
page is revealed the consummate skill of a writer attack- 
ing the existing institutions of an intolerant age with 
all the latitude it permitted. The critical or destructive 
part is highly practical and suggests the far-sighted 
statesman and keen critic rather than the Utopian 
dreamer. 

The second or constructive part of the work is of 



94 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

necessity more theoretical and in some instances pre- 
sents situations highly impractical and quite incredible. 
This is natural, as it is in their positive and constructive 
plans that all social reformers are liable to the severest 
criticism. Rodbertus, so sane and practical in the field 
of criticism, becomes even fantastic in some of the 
schemes he proposes. In the last of his economic 
letters to Von Kirchmann he makes predictions and 
advances ideas which ill comport with the credit given 
him as the father of scientific socialism. How natural 
to expect, then, in the writings of the father of Utopian 
socialism, plans that are very fanciful and which tend 
to shake one's faith in the severe sense of the great 
Humanist. 

3. As has been stated, one of the largest questions 
connected with the early stages of the Industrial Revo- 
lution concerned the Enclosures. It had in essence to 
do with the share labor was to get in the process of 
distribution. Farming was to many a laborer simply 
a by-industry. A source of revenue was thus cut off 
by enclosures. Moreover the revolution was silently 
effecting other great changes, with one social class — 
the landlord-class; it was lessening their income, and 
this in favor of another — the capitalist-class. 

To this matter More, in the beginning of " Utopia," 
addresses himself. He sees in the growth of sheep- 
culture and in the process of enclosures, with the at- 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 95 

tendant decrease of wages, a social wrong, an economic 
error, and a political danger. Nowhere in the literature 
of the time can be found a more vivid picture of the 
course of this economic movement in England than the 
following: " Forsooth, my lord, your sheep that were 
wont to be so weak and tame and so small eaters ; now 
as I hear say become so great devourers and so wild 
that they eat up and swallow down the very men them- 
selves. They consume, destroy, and devour whole 
fields, houses, and cities. For look in what parts of the 
realm doth grow the finest and therefore dearest wool, 
there noblemen and gentlemen yea and certain abbots, 
holy men no doubt, not contenting themselves with the 
yearly revenues and profits which were wont to grow 
to their fore-fathers and predecessors of their lands, 
not being content that they live in rest and pleasure — 
nothing profiting — yea much noying the weal- public 
— lease no ground for tillage ; they pluck down towns 
and leave nothing standing but only the church to be 
made a sheep-house." ' Thus More sets forth one of 
the fruitful causes of social unrest and of individual 
hardship. He condemns in bitter terms those who, 
by one means or another, drive out the helpless tenant 
and laborer; "when men, women, husbands, wives, 
fatherless children, widows, woful mothers with babes, 
and the whole household small in substance but great 

1 "Utopia," p. 180. 



96 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

in numbers' ' are driven out into the world and upon 
society, without means of maintenance to swell the 
beggar and criminal classes. The first analysis of 
the problem is made from the standpoint of the menace 
arising to society from the increase of the criminal and 
beggar class. 

It was, in fact, from this social standpoint that More 
considered the rapid industrial changes. Not only 
does it affect the civil state of society, but also bad 
economic conditions arise. The new system brought 
enlarged profits to the monopolists and More saw in it 
an evil to society at large. "It throws many men out 
of employment, whom no man will set to work, though 
they never so willingly proffer themselves thereto. For 
one shepherd or herdsman is enough to eat up that 
ground with cattle to the occupying whereof about hus- 
bandry many hands were requisite." * More sees and 
sets forth what in a later period so many writers 
and opponents of the machine saw, a period of 
transition when labor was, in the nature of the case, 
displaced and made to suffer until readjustment 
brought relief. 

In More's mind the industrial progress of his time was 

a foe to the laboring man. The enclosures meant 

much the same hardships as the modern expansion 

of machinery. Through this process not merely was 

*" Utopia," p. 182. 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 97 

common land taken from the laborer, thus destroying 
a lucrative by-industry, but along with this came new 
methods of culture under which more land could be 
utilized with fewer hands. What labor-saving ma- 
chinery did in the eighteenth-century revolution, the 
new method of culture did in agriculture in the six- 
teenth century ; it displaced labor, decreased wages, and 
increased profits in much the same way. The less im- 
portant changes in the earlier age led to profits, causing 
a growth of capital that made those more violent changes 
possible. This period sees the shifting of the ad- 
vantage from the labor class — from the side of the em- 
ployed to the employer. 1 Nor was this loss of wages 
and by-industry the only one noted by More. He 
pointed out that the vast economic changes had brought 
about changes in prices to the disadvantage of the 
laborer. Rents had risen, prices of commodities, such 
as food-stuffs, had also advanced since sheep-culture 
had cut down the quantities of farm produce. 

1 There were at this time many evictions in process. The rights 
of landlords to evict were disputed. The evictions went on. Fitz- 
herbert, in "Boke of Surveying," says: "It was a time when all the 
land enclosures and pastures lay open and unenclosed. And then 
was their tenements much better chepe than may be now; for the 
most part the lords have enclosed a great part of their waste grounds 
and straitened their tenants in their commons therein." Noted by 
Scrutton, "Enclosures," p. 70; cf. Starkey, "Dialogues"; Ashley, 
"Economic History," Vol. II, p. 274; Roscher, "Geschichte der Na- 
tional Oekonomik in Deutschland," p. 123. 
H 



98 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

Monopoly had also played its part in forcing up the 
price of wool; this tended to discourage manufacture 
and resulted in. higher prices to consumers. Because 
of this there was a breakdown of the household 
industry in England. "Yea, besides this the price 
of wool is so risen that poor folks that were wont to 
work it and make cloth thereof, be now able to buy 
none at all and by this means they be forced to forsake 
work and betake themselves to idleness." * In the 
light of the modern movements against the gigantic 
trusts, those products of that slow evolution since the 
days of More, these protests against monopolies and 
excessive profits are of great interest. More was 
champion of the laborer and the small holder against 
the spirit of monopoly. 

In this connection More attacks what he con- 
siders as social dangers arising from the monopolist 
and the profit-taking class. Speaking of the grow- 
ing custom of buying and selling cattle for gain, he 
says, "Thus the unreasonable coveteousness of a few 
hath turned that thing to the utter undoing of your 
island in which the chief felicity of your island doth 
consist." 2 

After having thus at length set forth the evils resulting 
from enclosures, that were working the undoing of 
old English society, More advises the interference of 
1 "Utopia," p. 182. 2 Ibid., p. 183. 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 99 

the government to avert coming disaster, saying, "Cast 
out these pernicious abominations; make a law that 
they which pluck down farms and towns of husbandry 
shall reedify them or else yield or up-render the pos- 
session of them to such as will go to the cost of building 
them anew." 

At the same time a similar movement was on foot on 
the Continent against the industrial changes producing 
like unfortunate results there. Among the "Twelve 
articles of the Peasants" occurs the following: "In the 
tenth place we are aggrieved by the appropriation by 
individuals of meadows and fields which at one time 
belonged to the community. These we will take 
again in our own hands. It may, however, happen that 
the land was rightfully purchased. When, however, 
the land has been unfortunately purchased in this way, 
some brotherly arrangement should be made according 
to circumstances." * This conservative though firm 
protest was made against the same evil appearing in 
Germany in 1525. There was an uprising against the 
oppression growing out of the great economic changes 
which were beginning everywhere to show themselves. 
Against these economic movements writers of the time 
thought to oppose the force of legislation. With what 

Pennsylvania, "Translations and Reprints," Vol. II, p. 23; see 
also, Berens, "The Digger Movement," etc., where the "Twelve 

Articles" arc found. 

tore. 



IOO SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

success the development of enclosures in England too 
well shows. 1 

4. As has been pointed out the age of More saw the 
growth of a new economic force — the growth of 
monopolies. To the danger of this new feature he was 
not blind. He approached monopolies, their evils 
and abuses, from the laborers' standpoint. The in- 
terests of the latter were put in jeopardy through the 
operation of forestalled, monopolists, and those who 
strive for large pecuniary gains. He said: " Suffer not 
these rich men to buy up all, to engross and forestall 
and with their monopoly to keep the market alone as it 
please them. Let not so many be brought to idleness. 
. . . Let cloth-making be renewed that there may 
be honest labors for this idle sort to pass their time in 
profitably, which hitherto either poverty has caused to 
be thieves or else now be either vagabonds or idle 
serving-men and shortly will be thieves." 2 This type 
of monopoly included what may be called the com- 
mercial capitalist. 

Equally pernicious was the land-holding monopoly. 
He held this landlord-class as idlers, contributing 
nothing, but living like parasites from the social income. 

1 On Enclosures, see Fitzherbert, "Boke of Surveying," 1567; 
Edward Lord Herbert, "Life and Reign of Henry VIII "; Lord 
Bacon, "History of Henry VH." 

'"Utopia," p. 188. 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 1 01 

Later he would have said they lived from the " unearned 
increment." A history of the changes in language 
would account for many so-called social changes. He 
calls these idle members "dorrers." "They are an 
idle class who live from the labor of those who toil." 
Karl Marx would have said they live from the " sur- 
plus-value" taken from the laborer. He adds: "First 
there is a great number of gentlemen which cannot be 
content to live idle themselves like dorrers, of that which 
others have labored — their tenants I mean ; whom 
they poll and shave to the quick by raising their rents." 

With bitter sarcasm he attacks those idle gentlemen 
who support and keep a great class of "retainers and 
loitering serving-men." He sees the problem of the 
non-productive laborer with the clearness of Adam 
Smith; he condemns this class with the severity of 
Karl Marx. Out of this class of retainers he claimed 
the number of vagrants was supplied. They never 
learn any trade and hence are of no social service. As 
a result, there arises a large class who are ill-fed, poorly 
clad, idle, and tradeless, given to a wandering life, a 
menace to society, and a danger to the state; a class 
rapidly increasing in the England of More's time and 
not unlike the modern class of "tramps." 

5. Directly in connection with the discussion of the 
social disorders arising from these industrial changes is 
found More's scathing denunciation of the maimer of 



102 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

dealing with the criminal classes. As is the case with 
most socialists, More viewed crime as a result of poverty 
and the criminal a direct product of unhealthy social 
conditions. "There in the mean season they that be 
thus destitute of service either starve for hunger or turn 
manfully thieves; for what would you have them to 
do?" The humanism of More comes out nowhere 
clearer than in his treatment of the subject of crime. 
In his ideas upon this subject of such vital importance 
he was three centuries ahead of his time. 

It is hardly necessary here to recount those facts, so 
well known, dealing with the condition of criminal 
law then in vogue in England. The simplest offences 
received the extreme penalty, and the law of procedure 
was such as to permit conviction upon the most specious 
evidence. It is probably true that with the full dis- 
cussion of the growth of civil law in England the vast 
importance of the changes in criminal law and procedure 
have been overlooked. At the threshold of this reform, 
which began with those statutes and customs providing 
for capital punishment for over two hundred offences, 
and ran throughout the whole range of criminal pro- 
cedure — at the threshold of this reform stands Sir 
Thomas More. 

He protested, as has been said, against the infliction 
of the capital penalty because he denied responsibility 
to those to whom social conditions left no choice. He 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 103 

also opposed it upon the more practical grounds that it 
was insufficient to prevent crimes. " Neither is there 
any punishment so horrible which can keep them from 
stealing which have none other craft whereby to get 
their living. For great and horrible punishment be 
appointed for thieves ; whereas much rather provision 
should have been made, that there were some means 
whereby they might get their living. So that no man 
might v-be driven to the extreme necessity — first to 
steal and then to die." 

This contains the kernel of all the later socialist pro- 
tests against severe punishment and is a short but clear 
statement of the irresponsibility of the criminal. More 
treated the criminal as a product of unfortunate social 
environment, a theory made so much of and discussed in 
a later chapter. He considered that cruel and indis- 
criminate punishment as practised in England was not 
only morally wrong, but was useless and could not check 
crime, so long as the cause of crime lay so largely 
in maladjustment. The foremost task was social re- 
construction and for this More makes provision in 
" Utopia." 

Examination of the conditions in England at this 
time shows that the most frequent crimes were those 
against property; those against the person were rela- 
tively rare. Theft was the offence for which most con- 
victions stood. It is further true that the laborers were 



104 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

those, who, through existing conditions, were most often 
compelled to steal. Frequently out of work and driven 
from the stabler condition of manorial life, they took 
up thieving as a vocation. Against this class, then, 
laws severe and unrelenting were executed. More 
advances radical reforms for this unfortunate class. 

This brings up one of the most rational and best 
supported claims of communism — the claim that crimes 
against property lead to the worst and most numerous 
infractions of social order ; and that, with private prop- 
erty abandoned, these disturbances would disappear. 
To this general theory More committed himself most 
clearly. For him private property had no sacredness 
and hence cruel punishment for theft was immoral. 
" Surely, My Lords, I think it is not right nor justice 
that the loss of money should cause the loss of a 
man's life ; for mine opinion is that all the goods in 
the world are not able to countervail man's life." * 

More denies to government the right to take life. 
This idea was later taken up and defended upon the 
theory of the social contract. As an illustration Joseph 
de Maistre has shown that as governments are em- 
powered by the members of society, each surrendering 
certain rights, it is insupportable that the members of 
society ever gave up their right to life, — a prop- 
osition which the theory of capital punishment in- 

1 "Utopia," p. 189. 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE IOS 

volves. 1 However specious such an argument may seem, 
it shows what interesting purposes the contract theory 
served. While More did not state the case so clearly, he 
questioned both the morality and the utility of capital 
punishment. 

6. More passes from a discussion of the individual 
aspects of crime and poverty to a consideration of war 
and peace and national defence. Generally speaking, 
socialists have opposed the army and navy. It has been 
customary to condemn them as an enemy of labor, a 
burden to the poorer classes, and the stronghold and 
defender of the aristocracy. Strange to say, More, 
though a monarchist, takes the same view. Though he 
says : "Soldiers may be made out of thieves and stand- 
ing armies may make room for idle labor as is seen 
in France, " yet he criticises the army as a menace to 
peace, as a useless maintenance of idle men by the labor- 
ing population, and as generally useless and ineffective. 
He condemns war as a social loss and the army as an 
idle, luxurious class upon the shoulders of the frugal 
laborers. Drawing from the conditions in " Utopia, " 
the example of the king abandoning war for internal 
improvements, he suggests the need of the nations 
limiting the expenditure for armament. 2 

1 See Baudrillart, "Publicistes modernes," Paris, 1863, Ch. 3, 
for a discussion of the theory of De Maistre. 

2 "Utopia," pp. 215-216. 



106 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

7. More finally reaches the radical and distinctive 
part of his social criticism — that touching private 
property. The safety of the commonwealth must not 
be despaired of. There is yet a solution for the social 
and political problems. The remedy is to be found in 
the displacement of private by public property. "How- 
beit, Master More (to speak truly as my mind giveth 
me), where possessions be private, where money beareth 
all the stroke; it is hard and almost impossible that 
there the weal-public be justly governed and prosper- 
ously flourish; that justice is there executed where all 
things come into the hands of evil men ; or that pros- 
perity there flourishes where all is divided among the 
few; which few do not lead their lives very wealthily, 
while the rest live miserably, wretchedly, and beggarly." * 
There remains little doubt that More has the England of 
his day in mind. That he believed that many of the 
evils of his day were augmented by private property 
seems equally certain. The relation of his opposition 
to enclosures and his general theory of communism 
seem also very close. Conditions of social equality 
he believed could be realized alone through equality 
of property which in turn demanded a system of com- 
munism. The system of private property produced 
only monopoly and the inequality and oppression at- 
tendant upon it. So the general remedy set forth by 
1 " Utopia," p. 221. 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 1 07 

More was equality of goods attainable alone through 
a vast enlargement of social control. 1 

Part II 

1. The description of the Island of Utopia contains, 
in the transparent guise of fiction, the political and 
social theories of Thomas More. After the first part 
of destructive criticism follows the constructive part 
outlining those conditions under which he believed a 
peaceful, progressive, and prosperous society could exist. 
The suggestions are not numerous nor does his plan 
seem workable; they are, however, valuable as illus- 
trating the most advanced social thought of his age and 
as being the serious observations of the greatest scholar 
of sixteenth-century England. 

His social scheme has as its basis the establishment of 
public control over property and the consequent aban- 
donment of many features found with this institution. 
It is this adoption of public control as a panacea for 
all social ills that connects More's thinking with early 
communism ; while parts of his plan, made necessary by 
this course, are of vital interest to modern socialism. 

2. As has been intimated the right of private property 
has been more or less important in different eras. 
According as it vitally affects the problems of home- 
life, the family, social and industrial organization, and 

l " Utopia," p. 222. 



108 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

social and political structure, will its presence be held 
as essential to social order, to progress, and to civil- 
ization. 

It is a fact quite natural and obvious, though diffi- 
cult of demonstration, that the right of private property 
has grown in sacredness and importance since the down- 
fall of feudalism. One of the most striking characteris- 
tics of this period has been the growth of individualism ; 
in fact this may be described as the line along which 
progress has moved. The progress of this spirit has 
been seen as the individual has gained possession of 
certain powers and privileges. He has gained rights 
to freedom of contract and also of a political nature. 
The most important phase of this development has 
been the remarkable expansion of the individual as an 
industrial or economic unit. Of the types of individ- 
ualism of Luther in the realm of religion, of Bacon in 
philosophy, of Rousseau in politics — none is more im- 
portant than that described by Adam Smith. Against 
none has developed a more persistent opposition. As 
has been remarked, socialism is a protest against the 
overdevelopment of individualism; communism is op- 
posed to that particular aspect which has to do with 
private property. 

To properly understand the theory of More, it is 
necessary to remember that property is only an historical 
category, and the term means something very different 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 109 

at different times. The sacredness of property has 
been much greater at one time than at another; for 
the importance of any institution varies with the age 
and with the demands made upon it. Private property, 
no doubt, meant much less to the England of the six- 
teenth century than it means to culture in the nine- 
teenth; by the drift of events the right of private 
property will be much less sacred and inviolable in the 
century to come. 

The period of More was one of transition from 
mediaeval conditions of property-holding to that of an 
age of extreme individualism. This change gradually 
took place in England, and property as an institution, 
defended by jurists and protected by law, grew con- 
stantly more sacred; and an economic system built 
upon the basis of private property came to make it 
the corner-stone of civilization. Not until individualism 
developed did private property assume its supreme 
importance ; it then became the basis of modern social 
order. 

Under such conditions private property rests upon a 
twofold justification, — the natural rights theory of the 
individualistic school and upon social utility. The age 
of More saw neither of these theories highly developed ; 
as will be shown in a following chapter, both doctrines 
were advanced and defended by later writers. The 
modern times have seen the theory of natural rights in 



HO SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

property much shaken ; and the property- right and the 
extent to which it shall be carried must now stand the 
social utility test. More made his attack on private 
property, when, not only to him but to others of his 
age, it was working the ruin of old English society 
and threatening the peace and order of the common- 
wealth. In other words, he condemns private property 
for its social disutility. A study of the treatment of 
property-holders in the reign of Henry VIII clearly 
teaches that did such an attitude exist to-day, it would 
seem most dangerous to conservative minds, and it 
would be rank heresy to the modern jurist. To Thomas 
More such was not the case, and his communism was a 
conservative rather than a radical measure. 

3. There seems therefore nothing unusual in the 
theory of a society based upon common property. It 
is set forth in his description of Utopia in a matter- 
of-fact manner. . . . " Though they carry nothing 
with them yet they lack nothing in all their journey ; 
for wherever they come they be at home." 

The many outgrowths of this principle More clearly 
recognized. He appreciates that important economic 
motives spring from the property-right. He admits 
the system of common property would lack some of 
these motives. "Yet they take no care at all for the 
living and wealth of themselves, and all theirs, of their 
wives and children, their nephews and children's 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE III 

children and all the succession that shall follow in their 
posterity." * More does not seem to realize, however, 
that this meant an enormous loss of economic motive 
which is one of the most important assets of any society. 
He seemed to think there would be no diminished prod- 
uct. "And yet besides there is no less provision for 
them that were once laborers and be now weak and im- 
potent, than for them that do labor and take pain." 
"And though no man has anything yet every man is 
rich ; for what can be more rich than to live joyful and 
merrily." 2 

The chief advantage to arise from common property 
is a solution of a problem long discussed by social and 
political reformers — the reconciliation of public and 
private interests. How is a commonwealth to prosper ? 
By being so organized that the general and particular 
interests will coincide. How can this be done? By 
abandoning private property and making the interests 
of the commonwealth conform to those of the individuals 
composing it ; by absorbing the individual interests in 
the general welfare. 

Of all the principles More sets forth, this is the most 
important and shows the breadth of his mind. "Here 
where nothing is private the common affairs be earnestly 
looked upon. For in other places they speak still of 
the commonwealth ; but every man procureth his own 

1 " Utopia," p. 368. 2 Ibid., p. 368. 



112 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

private gain. For in other countries who knoweth that 
he shall starve for hunger unless he make several pro- 
vision for himself, though the commonwealth itself 
flourish never so much in riches. And therefore he is 
compelled even of very necessity to have regard to 
himself rather than to the people ; that is to say, others." * 
According to More, then, common property alone will 
secure a mutuality of interests, and hence make a real 
commonwealth. Common property must be the basis 
of a commonwealth. 

4. There is one particular of very great importance 
in which More differs from writers of his class; i.e. 
his attitude toward the family. Plato, his classic 
prototype, advocated not merely communism of prop- 
erty, but defended communal relationships in family 
life. He abandoned the family as a unit of social or- 
ganization, believing it unwise to thrust a minor unit 
between the individual and the state or the politically 
organized society. In this, as in other respects, More 
does not follow his great master. Though he advocates 
a system of industrial society based upon communism, he 
preserved the family as the basis of social organization. 
With most communist writers from Plato down to 
modern times, the family has been held as the comple- 
ment of property and the fate of one determined that of 
the other. The family has been held as the bulwark 
1 " Utopia," p. 367. 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 113 

of private property, and property the bond of family 
unity. They have, therefore, held that the abandon- 
ment of property meant the destruction of the family. 
To this extreme More did not go. 

5. Within the limits of a communistic society More 
had some interesting plans for social organization. 
He treats, as writers from the time of Plato have done, 
of the division of labor. This he discusses from two 
view points. In his artificially constructed society 
direction is given the labor-supply through the means 
of education. " Besides husbandry which (as I have 
said) is common to them all, every one of them learneth 
one or other several science as his own proper craft." 
After an enumeration of the crafts, he continues : "But 
of these aforesaid crafts every man learneth one; and 
not only the men but also the women." * 

His attitude toward the subject differs from that of 
Plato. Plato insisted on the division of labor. His 
idea was, however, based upon a political necessity. 
For with Plato, the end of the state was justice ; and as 
this consists in giving to each his due, and as this 
applied to industrial life, it therefore seemed necessary 
that there be an enforced division of occupation so that 
each will stay in his own sphere and not encroach on 
his neighbor. The realization of the ends of the state 
in justice was conditioned according to Plato largely 

1 " Utopia," pp. 247, 248. 



114 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

upon economic relationships, a decidedly modern 
socialistic proposition. More, on the other hand, em- 
phasized the industrial and not the political aspects. 

Greater latitude is allowed by More. His ideal state 
does not so completely absorb the individual as does 
Plato's. There is a small area of individuality left 
undisturbed by the social dictator. In More's scheme 
each was supposed to follow one trade, and that gen- 
erally the trade of his father. Under the guidance of 
the government, however, there might be more than one 
trade learned and practised. "Yea, and any person 
after he hath learned one craft be desirous to learn 
another he is likewise suffered and permitted. When he 
hath learned both, he occupieth whether he will unless 
the city hath more need of one than the other." * 

Thus, More does not treat the division of labor in the 
narrow and technical manner of Adam Smith. He was 
rather interested in the broader aspects. In the social 
scheme of Plato division of labor was to underlie social 
unity. It was largely to take the place of property as a 
basis for that unity. The interdependence of the social 
classes was to be maintained through division of labor, 
and social unity and harmony secured. 2 The Church 
Fathers also shared this theory, and to More it was one 
of the important phases of the problem. 

1 " Utopia," pp. 248, 249. 

* Franck, "Communism juge par l'histoire," p. 21. 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 115 

More discussed division of labor as between men and 
women based upon the fitness of the different sexes. 
"But the women, as the weaker sort, be put to the 
easier crafts as to work at wool or flax." In the earlier, 
as in the later, culture women are occupied at the 
textile industries. 

As to the best form of industrial organization More 
makes little mention. In the textile industry he seems 
to have known only the household type. Speaking of 
the influence of fashion on the market, he says: "As 
for the garments every family maketh its own." During 
the life of More the household method was breaking 
down in England, and the transition to the domestic 
system was marked by those hardships More thought 
should in some way be mitigated. The chief cause 
More assigned for the difficulties in the old system was 
the high price of raw materials. In his attitude toward 
this older system may be seen More's conservatism. 
His devotion to the older form of industrial organiza- 
tion, to the communal control of land, and to the mo- 
nogamus family — all show his reactionary policy and 
free him from the charge of undue radicalism. 

6. In his treatment of the length of the labor-day lies 
More's most distinctive socialistic feature, and this con- 
stitutes his clearest contribution to ideas of reform in 
favor of the laboring man. In this part of his discussion 
he seems most modern ; indeed, his statements on this 



Il6 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

question might have come from a labor- congress of yes- 
terday. The general statements on this question have 
been passed along, and the arguments to sustain this 
position have scarcely been excelled. True, he did not 
discuss the surplus-value arising from the long labor- 
day, as did Marx ; he does not clearly point out the ex- 
ploitation of the laborer by the employer, as does the 
modern socialist; he has, however, suggested strongly 
these very things. 

After discussing the unfortunate condition of labor 
because of long hours, More says: "For this is worse 
than the wretched and miserable condition of bonds- 
men; which is nevertheless nearly everywhere the life 
of workmen and artificers saving in Utopia. For they 
dividing the day and night into twenty-four hours, ap- 
point and assign only six of those for work ; three before 
noon upon which they go straight to dinner, when they 
have rested two hours upon that they go to supper.' ' % 
With keen observation More saw that the excessive toil 
of the new industrial system, though still young, meant 
mental and physical injury to labor and called for re- 
form. One could imagine he was reading the report 
of an English industrial commission during the first 
quarter of the nineteenth century. 

More's reasons for shorter hours show his apprecia- 
tion of the needs of labor, being only tardily recognized 

1 " Utopia," p. 249. 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 1 17 

to-day. The time gained by the laborer was to be 
devoted to study, to attendance on lectures, and to 
healthy recreation. He insisted that the leisure time 
be devoted to useful exercises, else riot, idleness, and 
slothfulness would result in greater harm to the laborer. 
More advocated the short day that labor might be 
saved from debasing drudgery, and the laborer be 
given opportunity for culture and for self-improve- 
ment. 

The vulnerable points in the contention for the short 
day are seen by More and to some extent defended. 
The most apparent and valid objection is that the short 
day would result in a lessening of the output. This has 
been an objection waged not alone against the short- 
day propaganda, but against the entire socialistic 
scheme. If the capitalistic system is the most pro- 
ductive form of industry, then any change in a socialistic 
direction must, in the nature of the case, lead to a 
scarcity of commodity. 

There are in More's scheme three features to be 
noticed in this connection. There is provision made for 
compulsory and hence almost universal labor. No 
place for a leisure class is found in the plan presented. 
There were to be no idlers in his society, no drones in 
the hive, no non-productive labor. All able-bodied 
persons must engage in useful occupation. The les- 
sening of the product, therefore, resulting from shorter 



Il8 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

days would be compensated by the industry of the 
idlers. 

This is just what the modern advocates of the eight- 
hour day argue; the existing industries would absorb 
the idle labor and thus more fairly distribute the bur- 
dens. It is possible by more widely distributing the 
existing labor-force to lessen the toil for each by pro- 
viding a place for all. Women, More would put to 
work. Visitors must labor if they stay longer than a 
day; "he hath no meat given him till he hath wrought 
out his forenoon's task; ... In Utopia they utterly 
forsake and eschew idleness ; thinking felicity after this 
life to be gotten and obtained by busy labors and good 
exercises." * 

The second compensatory feature in More's scheme 
is the employment of women and of the great body of 
clericals. These, he believes, would serve society better 
if they engaged in labor. "Besides how great and how 
idle a company there is of priests and religious men as 
they call them; put thereto all rich men, especially all 
landed men, which generally be called gentlemen and 
noblemen; take unto this number their servants; join 
to them also all sturdy beggars cloaking their idle life 
under some disease or sickness;" 2 put all these to la- 
bor, and no lack of product will be experienced. "The 
rest of the people being neither idle nor occupied with 
1 " Utopia," p. 355. 2 Ibid., pp. 250-252. 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 119 

unprofitable exercise, it may be easily judged in how 
few hours how much good work may be done and dis- 
patched towards those things that I have spoken of." ! 
This is a clear statement of the productive possibility 
of a society where all uniformly toil. More answers 
theoretically this objection to the short day. 

In this connection there very naturally arises the 
question of what constitutes productive effort. This 
leads to an examination of the theory of More as to 
the content of the term "wealth," which, after all, 
determines the definition of the term "productive la- 
bor." This is not clearly expressed by More, though 
his meaning is clear. Labor is to be called productive 
which increases material goods and hence material wel- 
fare. In certain phrases this is made quite evident. 
Those are classed as idle who are caring for the spirit- 
ual needs. The governors are not merely active in 
civil life, but they do add to the material wealth. He 
urges that the material goods answering primary needs 
are more easily produced. The "Utopia" teaches that 
the supply of the primary wants can be readily met 
with plenty for all. 

The problem of plenty is met not by increasing 
output, but by reducing the wants. This is a simple 
formula and popular with socialists. It would cer- 
tainly help to solve the problem of relative poverty 

1 " Utopia," p. 252. 



120 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

which is, after all, the chief problem faced either by 
socialism, by social reform, or by philanthropy, emo- 
tional or philosophic. 

More's idea of wealth is that of the mercantilists, — 
not money, but useful material goods answering pri- 
mary wants. Wants based upon desire for distinction 
did not exist in Utopia. There was no pecuniary spirit. 
Value in use was the sole quality of goods. There were 
no fictitious or artificial values. There was no energy 
lost in the strife of competition. Wants thus simpli- 
fied were supplied cheaply. In one sentence he de- 
scribes not only the ideal world of his thought, but the 
unrealized dream of socialism: " Wherefore seeing 
they all be exercised in profitable occupations and that 
few artificers in the same craft be sufficient; this is 
the cause that plenty of all things be among them." * 

There is one other feature in More's teaching perti- 
nent to this discussion, dealing with the deeper philoso- 
phy of the great humanist. A new set of motives are 
revealed by his study of his imaginative society. In the 
society he described, the myth of the " economic man" 
would not be valuable even for analogy. The pecun- 
iary motive so dominant in our age is there lacking. 
The desire for distinction in the possession and display 
of material wealth does not move men. A new set of 
motives comes into play ; a new idea of pleasure becomes 

l " Utopia," p. 255. 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 12 1 

dominant. More teaches a theory prominent in Eng- 
land from Robert Owen to William Morris and Ruskin. 
In this respect he more nearly coincides with the 
idealism of Plato which is so far removed from one 
school of modern materialistic socialism. A quotation 
will show his thought: "They embrace chiefly the 
pleasures of mind for them they count the chiefest and 
most principal of all." "For why in the institution of 
the weal-public this end is only pretended and minded — 
that what time may possibly be spared from the neces- 
sary occupations and affairs of the commonwealth — 
all that the citizens should withdraw from the bodily 
service to the free liberty of the mind and the garnish- 
ing of the same; for here they suppose the felicity of 
the life to consist." * It will thus be seen his doctrine 
of pleasure is closely related to his proposed solution 
of the social problems. 

7. This being true, a glance at his theory of pleasure 
and pain is probably justified. It has been already 
pointed out that, as a humanist, in sympathy with the 
New Learning, More had already repudiated many of 
the sterner, ascetic notions characteristic of the clergy 
of his day. On the other hand, his moderation kept him 
from the excesses which had begun to show themselves 
in higher English life. 

On his theory of pleasure one writer says: "The 
■ ■ Utopia," p. 255. 



122 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

author takes the side of Epicurus in this controversy, 
who considered happiness in itself and in its formal 
state and not according to its relation to external beings ; 
and in this view he asserted the felicity of man consisted 
in pleasure." * That More was an Epicurean in his 
teaching, seems not so clear. He seems rather to be a 
follower of Plato in this regard. He does give rather a 
large place to pleasure as an end, but it is pleasure of a 
high order. "But now, Sir, they do not hold felicity 
to rest in all pleasure but only in that pleasure that is 
good and honest and that hereto as to perfect blessed- 
ness our nature is allured and drawn as by virtue, 
whereto only they that be of a contrary opinion do 
attribute felicity." 2 With bitter satire he refers to 
those who, with perverted tastes, follow pleasures at 
once costly and unsatisfying. 

More has not given any very clear theory of consump- 
tion, but he has perhaps made as suggestive statements 
as any early writer. Pleasure is the end of life ; but 
pleasure in the sense taught by Plato. Pleasure is to 
be sought by the individual, but only of a kind that will 
not harm the commonweal. Pleasures arising from 
unnatural desires, vanity, etc., are harmful to society 
and must be avoided. He rebukes with severity many 
of the cruel and wasteful practices of his time. Hunting 
for sport is not only cruel and uneconomical, it is an 

1 " Utopia," p. 283. (Notes by the editor, Dibdin.) 2 Ibid., p. 284. 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 123 

unnatural sport. This, More says, the Utopians leave 
to the butchers. 

8. More does not distinguish clearly between the 
forms of social and civil organization. This lack of 
differentiation shows his crudeness, and its later ap- 
pearance marks the evolution of the scientific mind. 
This is not at all peculiar to More as such an instance 
as Locke's "Two Treatises of Government, ,, written 
much later, clearly shows. He does, however, ap- 
preciate certain facts in the study of social structure 
made much of by the modern sociologists ; as, when he 
points out that in Utopia the wife goes into the home 
of the husband. 

Besides the unity growing out of division of labor, 
More looked to the family and family relationships to 
lend solidarity to the social group. "The wives be 
ministers to their husbands, the children to the parents, 
to be short, the younger to their elders.' ' * 

Into the management of the family was introduced 
a large element of state control. The family life was 
to be controlled, as in Sparta, that a strong offspring 
might come to the state. This had to do with the 
nature and number of children brought forth. 2 More 

1 lbid. ) p. 258. 

2 " But to the intent the prescribed number of citizens should neither 
decrease nor increase beyond measure : it is ordained that no family 
. . . shall have fewer children of the age of fourteen or thereabouts 
than ten or more than sixteen." — Ibid., p. 256. 



124 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

saw, what too few social reformers have been either 
wise enough or bold enough to advocate, viz., that the 
social problem has chiefly to do with the increase of 
population, seen from these two view points. With 
statistics More did not deal ; and statistical analysis had 
to w r ait for the treatises of Malthus and his associates. 1 

The family, according to More, must not be left to 
the regulation of the contracting parties; such control 
must be enforced as will save society against hereditary 
degeneracy. He treats marriage as one of the most sa- 
cred and important relationships, which the state should 
regulate. That care should be taken in the propaga- 
tion of the lower animal species, while that of the human 
species is left to chance, caprice, and blind sentiment, 
seems absurd. The law of natural selection must be 
supplemented or supplanted by statutory enactment. 
Progress must be a reasoned process, and the rational 
element must enter into sexual choice. This feature 
of his social scheme was advanced by Plato and has 
been incorporated into many later works. 2 

More clearly recognized the dangers of overpopula- 
tion. He thinks overpopulation possible within certain 

1 Cf. Stangeland, " Pre-Malthusian Doctrines of Population," 
N. Y., 1904, p. 95. 

2 Bacon, "New Atlantis"; Campanella, "City of the Sun," etc.; 
Soetbeer, " Die Stellung der Sozialisten zur Malthus'schen Bevolker- 
ungslehre," Berlin, 1886, is an interesting discussion of this prob- 
lem. 



THE social THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 125 

population groups, which was really the contention 
of Malthus. He did see, however, what Malthus 
seems to have overlooked; i.e. the local nature of the 
problem. More laid much emphasis on the possible 
relief through emigration. He calls special attention 
to tli is aspect of the case, an idea likely suggested by 
the westward movements of population in that age of 
discovery. In the chapter on domestic relations he sets 
this forth as a remedy, and has no fear of a general con- 
gestion of population. 

In this connection it may be interesting to glance at 
some of the main facts in the discussion. Nitti re- 
marks: "Before Malthus the economic theorists had 
not studied the question of population at all or had 
assumed that the duty of the sovereigns and states 
consisted in procuring the increase of population by 
every means within their power. " l The attitude here 
set forth really dates from Bacon, who in his essays 
clearly holds to the need of increasing the population. 2 
The view is urged, however, when there had been for 
many reasons a great dispersion of population, especially 
after the new military methods introduced by Crexy 
and Agincourt. 

Moreover, the mercantile theory, emphasizing as it 
did the need of national power and arousing the local 

1 Nitti, "Population and the Social System," London, 1894, p. 2. 
1 Bacon, "Essays," edition of 1806, p. 136. 



126 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

pride and jealousy, favored all schemes by which the 
greatness of a nation could be augmented. 1 The theory, 
then, that demanded an increase of population, rested 
upon a consideration of national, rather than of in- 
dividual, interests. Opposition to the growth of popu- 
lation appears as mercantilism declines and eighteenth- 
century individualism expresses itself in concrete social 
theories. Overpopulation is not therefore a socialist 
doctrine, and these writers from More down have been 
in favor of an increased population. 2 

9. In no part of his social criticism is More so drastic 
as in his attack on money, with which he associates 
luxury. In his treatment of the evils of money he 
clearly foreshadows the more modern socialism. His 
theory was in direct antagonism to the doctrines of mer- 
cantilism soon to dominate English economic thinking. 
His teachings on money are specially clear and sound. 
"In the meantime, gold and silver, whereof money 
is made, they do so use, as none of them do so esteem 
it than the very nature of the thing [deserved." The 
money metals he placed far below iron in the scale 
of values. His statement of the case is strikingly 
similar to that of Ricardo. "Whereas to gold and 

Frederick le Grand, "CEuvres," Vol. IV, p. 4-6; Filangieri, 
"La Scienza della Legislazione de Cittadino," Genoa, 1798; Vol. 1, 
p. 263 et. seq.; Nitti, op. cit., pp. 1-10. 

2 Cf. Stangeland, op. cit., p. 104. 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 127 

silver nature has given no use that we may not lack, if 
that the folly of men had not set it in higher estimation 
for its rareness sake. But of the contrary part, nature 
as a kind and tender Mother hath placed the best and 
necessary things open abroad as air, water and the 
earth itself; and hath removed and hid from us vain 
and unprofitable things.' ' * 

His attack on the precious metals is very severe. 
Gold in Utopia is used for vile purposes. Men make 
gyves of it for slaves, and criminals wear gold rings for 
punishment. Gold ornaments are a mark of child- 
hood, and when grown, they cast them away as they 
would dolls and puppets. In most instructive com- 
parison to the craze for the precious metals stands this 
telling satire against the exaggerated idea of the value 
of gold and silver and a plea for consideration for goods 
of primary value. 

The evils arising from the presence of money More sets 
forth at the close of his work. Much of the occasion 
for theft, envy, and ambition is banished with money. 
"When money dieth, much of the cause of crime is 
vanished.' ' Money leads to speculation ; men buy and 
keep grain for pecuniary purposes while the people 
hunger. "This same worthy princess, Lady Money," 
he calls the one who so effectually shuts the way between 
us and our living. "She (pride growing out of money) 

1 "Utopia," p. 274. 



128 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

measureth not wealth and prosperity by her own com- 
modities, but by the misery and incommodities of 
others." * 

10. But one point remains in the theories of More. 
In common with most social teachers he deals with the 
city-state as the most perfect form of organization. 
This was natural, for as a student of Plato he had the 
Greek city-state before his mind. The city republic, 
of Plato, the ideal city of Saint Augustine, the city of 
Machiavelli, and the City of the Sun of Campanella — 
all show how popular this concept has been. 

There are certain characteristic features of the city 
fitted to the scheme of More. The city-state makes 
necessary a narrow control over the details of every day 
life, too familiar to need mention. The very conditions 
of municipal life lead naturally toward extensive social 
control which is, as has been contended, the chief 
feature of socialism. This is true as exemplified in the 
Greek cities ; it is also illustrated in the modern ten- 
dency toward municipal socialism. The city presents 
the conventional in life typified in Utopia by a condition 
of extreme physical order in construction of streets, 
houses, etc., which was but a counterpart of that me- 
chanical accuracy with which social life was supposed to 
operate. The control, therefore, in Utopia was marked 
by that precision, that unbending consistency and con- 

1 " Utopia," p. 371. 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 129 

formity, so common in socialistic and communistic 
schemes. In this attempt to escape industrial anarchy 
they reach despotism, and in the struggle for equality 
and conformity crush all spontaneity and eliminate 
liberty. Thus, there is an attempt by More to reach 
equality. He makes no pretensions at liberty. 

Like all humanists, More was an advocate of absolute 
monarchy. He was a worshipper of the " Prince. " 
His pattern was the absolute monarchs of the Tudor 
House, and he does not depart from the type. He placed 
a strong personal ruler at the head of his system as 
most writers from Machiavelli to the Revolution have 
done. There was in this perfect social system the no- 
tion of absolutism; it had only a slight democratic 
element in it. He advocated what was later the con- 
servative idea that the king should be chosen by the 
people. More differs, however, in this important par- 
ticular from Machiavelli; his prince exists and rules 
for the people; as much can hardly be said for the 
" Prince" of the great Italian. 

n. The socialism of More, then, if it is to be so 
called, is to be understood in its broadest sense. It 
means a struggle by the social classes for admission to 
the enjoyment of all the benefits offered, as society 
makes progress along various lines. It involves that 
view of society which sees in the laboring man more 
than a "hand." It considers that all members of 



130 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

society, whether toiling with brain, or soul, or hand are 
endowed with high capacities and possessed of the 
right to enter into the heritage of a larger, richer civili- 
zation. More conceives of the man who labors as a 
being with brain and mind as well as with brawn 
and muscle, and plans to develop these higher 
powers. 

As one of the most brilliant and influential represen- 
tatives of humanism and of the new culture, More saw 
the need of a vertical as well as of a horizontal move- 
ment of the New Learning. Kept for centuries in 
those upper zones where wealth and nobility move, 
it could never work out the high ideals entertained by 
Thomas More, until the nineteenth-century Renais- 
sance gave it that vertical tendency toward the lower 
areas of life. More must be viewed as forecasting that 
modern socialist propaganda, in which labor asks 
opportunity in this larger culture with its varied 
expressions in education, literature, politics, and 
art. 

Slowly have the lower classes, following the aspira- 
tions of More, made progress in these lines. At first 
labor demanded the right to "subsistence"; this was 
met with miserable degrading laws. It next demanded 
the right to earn its subsistence, summed up in the 
phrase "the right to labor." Later it comes to stipulate 
those conditions under which this labor shall be done. 



THE SOCIAL THEORIES OF SIR THOMAS MORE 131 

Gradually the laborer comes to participate in the higher 
powers, duties, and privileges of active citizenship and 
assumes new civic relationships. To-day socialism in 
its best expression demands a still larger enjoyment 
by the lower classes of the benefits of general culture. 



CHAPTER IV 

LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 

i. With the study of Campanella the field is changed 
from north to south, from England to Italy, from Ger- 
manic to Romance culture. The appearance of social 
discontent and anti-social theories seems perfectly 
natural among southern peoples, and especially in Italy 
where the Revival of Learning started theorizing on other 
lines, and where the capitalistic regime showed itself 
quite early. 1 There certainly existed conditions favor- 
able to social upheaval, and the Italian character 
seemed fitted thereto. There appears, however, very 
slight agitation and very little literature bearing on social 
questions in Romance lands. The northern countries 
stimulated at once by the two great movements, the 
Renaissance and the Reformation, had witnessed up- 
risings and had produced some literature and social 
theories more or less revolutionary. Italy, during this 
time, seems not to have taken much part in this senti- 
ment of social disorder. 

For a long time a calm had marked the social life of 
Italy. Away back in the latter part of the thirteenth 

1 Janssen, " History of German People at the Close of the Middle 
Ages," St. Louis, 1900, Vol. II, Ch. I. Cf. Labriola, op. cit., p. 153. 

132 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 133 

century one bold character had dared to revolt against 
the petty but effective despotism of one of the republics. 1 
Arnold of Brescia for some time scattered the seeds of 
social discontent in Milan, where was reaped the usual 
harvest of disorder and riot. As is usual, Arnold was 
led to attack property by a scandalous abuse of its 
power by one class and he developed rather a complete 
scheme of communism. Aroused by the power or 
abuse of power in the hands of the church, he bitterly 
attacked the landed clergy, as was done so much later 
in France and England. The disaffection spread, and 
war was waged not only against property but also 
against its kindred institutions. This movement was 
soon checked, however, and little came of the agitation 
for a cause for which its leader gave up his life. 

There is, moreover, a general paucity of literature for 
a century following Thomas More, for which several 
explanations are offered. One of importance is the 
fact that so disastrous had been the attempts at social 
reform in northern Europe that the cause seemed 
hopeless, and radical agitators were stamped as enemies 
of state, church, and of civilization itself. 2 This con- 
clusion seemed justified by the history of Lollardy, 

1 Ibid., p. 29. 

2 Kirchenheim, "L'Eternelle Utopia," Paris, 1897, p. 83. Cf. 
Berens, "The Digger Movement," etc., p. 11; also Kautsky, " Com- 
munism,' ' pp. 29 et seq. 



134 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

the Hussite movement in Bohemia, and kindred up- 
risings. It is also true that great religious questions 
came to occupy people's minds, and abstract principles 
and even questions of scientific method came to the 
front, while the idealist and reformer were less pat- 
ronized. With the opening of the seventeenth century 
the interest in social questions revived, and considerable 
literature was published. Of this the most interesting 
and important came from the pen of the Calabrian 
monk, Thomas Campanella. 

2. Very little attention has been paid to Campanella 
by English students, and accounts in English of his life 
and work are very meagre and unsatisfactory. His 
works have, however, been quite fully treated by foreign 
critics. Owing to this paucity of English literature 
treating his life and works, a rather extended notice of 
authorities seems justifiable. Among the works from 
his pen those dealing with the social problem are: 
"City of the Sun," which probably first appeared in 
1619, almost exactly a century after the "Utopia" by 
Thomas More; and his "Discourses touching the 
Spanish Monarchy, " published abouf 1599. The date is 
somewhat in dispute, though it seems highly probable 
that it appeared shortly before the death of Elizabeth 
in England. The "Realistic Philosophy," Part IV, 
was probably written while the author was in prison 
and published at an uncertain date afterward. 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 1 35 

There is quite an extensive literature of a biographical 
and critical nature. So many-sided was his culture and 
so far-reaching were his teachings that the life of the 
learned monk called forth extensive criticism in various 
tongues. Among these may be cited the treatise by 
Andrea Calenda, " Thomas Campanella and his Social 
and Political Doctrines bearing upon Modern Social- 
ism." l On the philosophy of Campanella the short 
work by Sante Felici, "The Philosophical and Religious 
Doctrines of Campanella," is very satisfactory. 2 On 
his biography the work of Baldacchini, "Vita e filosofia 
di Tommaso Campanella," should be consulted. 
Luigi Amabile of Naples has written a very extensive 
treatise of his life, but it is cumbrous and tedious. 3 
Shorter notices appear in such works as those of Adolphe 
Franck 4 and Von Mohl. 5 The place of Campanella 
has been discussed by Paul Laf argue ; 8 and very 
briefly by Kleinwachter. 7 

3. It is perhaps a result of a chauvinistic spirit that 

1 Calenda, " Fra Tommaso Campanella e la sua Dottrina Sociale e 
Politica di Fronte al Socialismo Moderno," 1895. 

2 "Le Dottrine Filosofico-religiose di Tommaso Campanella, con 
particolare riguardo alia filosofia della rinascenza Italiana." 

3 " Fra Tommaso Campanella la sua congiura i suoi processi e la 
sua pazzia, " etc., Naples, 1882. 

4 " Re'formateurs et publicistes de PEurope," 1881. 
1 Op. cit. 

e "Die Vorlaufer des neueren Socialismus," pp. 469-506. 
7 "Die Staatsromane," Wien, 1891. 



136 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

each nation sees in its writers and critics the forerun- 
ners of great movements and the originators of wise 
social schemes. Such a case is seen when Guizot states 
with an interesting air of assurance that every great 
idea has either originated in France or passed through 
the French to the world. A certain element of this 
spirit probably inspires those writers who claim for 
Campanella a very large place in the history of the in- 
cipient stages of socialism. The claim seems, however, 
to have a very good justification in fact. Campanella, 
monk, philosopher, communist, and revolutionist, made 
a very substantial contribution to the early thought of 
socialism. 1 He is not important because of the quantity 
he wrote; his works are marked by commendable 
brevity. Analysis shows, however, that his social 
theories and economic views are far-reaching and sug- 
gestive. 2 

Campanella was born, according to the most reliable 
biographers, in 1568 in the little village of Stillo, in 
Calabria. 3 Educated for orders, in the declining days 

1 Calenda, op. cit., Preface. 

2 The value of the Italian critics concerning Campanella has been 
questioned by Croce. That modern socialists look upon Cam- 
panella as their "Homer" is, of course, an exaggeration. Lafargue 
also comes in for his share of the criticism. See Croce, " Materia- 
lism Historique et Economie Marxiste," Paris, 1901, pp. 270 et seq. 

3 Calenda, op cit., p. 4 ; Colet, " (Euvres choisies," p. 2, Franck, 
op. cit., Vol. II, p. 151. 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 137 

of scholasticism, he was early noted for his power as a 
philosopher, and it is in this sphere he is best known. 
It was during the period of struggle then in progress 
against the ancient Aristotelian philosophy that Cam- 
panula gained his reputation as a scholar and as a great 
philosophic controversialist. 1 

It may be of interest to take a glance at the intellectual 
environment of the man. He was born at the close of 
the life of Bruno, far-famed for having anticipated the 
theories of Galileo, who also was advanced in life while 
Campanella was in childhood. Telesius, whose disciple 
and defender he became, died before Campanella 
reached manhood. Francis Bacon, who seemed not to 
have known him, was seven years his senior. Bodin 
wrote his six "Livres de la R6publique" while the 
monk's character was in the making, and Grotius was a 
contemporary with this brilliant group of political and 
social philosophers. The work of the noted chemist 
and founder of the science of Medicine, Paracelsus, 
appeared shortly before the social theorizing of Cam- 
panella began. Of the place of Italy at this time it is 
only necessary to note that five of the greatest scholars 
of Europe are Italians — Cardanus, Telesius, Patritius, 
Bruno, and the Calabrian monk, Campanella. 2 

1 Calenda, op. cit. } p. 62. 

2 Rixner, " Leben und Lehrmeinungen Beriihmter Physiker," 
1829; "Einleitung." 



138 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

Campanula's first great inspiration was Telesius, in 
whose defence he made those speeches on which his 
fame rests and which enhanced the reputation of his 
client. It is said that while Antonia Marta consumed 
seven years writing a book against Telesius, Campanella 
occupied but seven months in destroying it. Cam- 
panula's works were highly theoretical. Many of the 
writings of a similar nature during this period partake 
of a more scientific spirit. Bodin has been classified 
in much the same school as Campanella and has even 
been called very idealistic and Utopian. He saw, 
however, the difference between his method and that of 
Campanella and More, declaring that he was not deal- 
ing with an imaginary commonwealth, as Thomas 
More had done. 1 Campanella, then, may be called the 
most idealistic and Utopian of this learned group; he 
is more positively a social reformer than the others. 
He had, however, sound judgment on social and 
political affairs corresponding somewhat to Harrington, 
the premises of both men being very sane. 

A study of this many-sided man reveals a strange 
life — a virtual paradox. An orthodox Catholic and a 
devoted monk, he was a worshipper of the stars and 

1 "Republic," Bk. I, p. 3; cf. Sudre, "Histoire du Communisme"; 
Baudrillart, "Tableaux des Theories Politiques, " etc., pp. 24 et seq.; 
Gierke, "Althusius," pp. 151, 152 (ed. 1880); Bluntschli, "Histoire 
du droit publique." 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 139 

placed astrology above his religion. Himself violently 
persecuted, his theories make no provision for liberty, 
nor is he a friend of toleration. A forerunner of the 
rational method in physical science, he was super- 
stitious in religion and fanciful in his social theories. 
Although he lived an isolated monk in the cloister or a 
martyr in the cell he advanced a form of social organi- 
zation which most clearly abandons individualism. 
Apparently a free-thinker, he was yet a slave to the 
traditions and ceremonies of the past. 

There are some very interesting points of contrast 
between More and Campanella. Both were determined 
for orders, but More returned to public life and the 
law, while Campanella took to the cloister. Both were 
devoted Catholics. More, however, espoused the New 
Learning and was a devoted follower of Aristotle; 
Campanella, also versed in classic lore, revolted against 
Greek philosophy and became its bitterest enemy and 
most feared opponent. More was a marked conserva- 
tive and on the side of order ; Campanella was a radical 
and a revolutionary and suffered for his course. Cam- 
panella suffered twenty-six years of martyrdom for 
his radicalism; More went to the scaffold for his 
conservatism. More favored an absolute monarchy 
with the people having a kind of king-making power; 
Campanella favored a republic, though, of course, of the 
Italian pattern. Campanella was an agitator, believed 



I40 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

he could upset the power of Spain, destroy the existing 
social order, and create a republic ; 1 More was an 
advocate of the Tudor monarchy. More resembled 
Karl Marx; Campanella was an early Lassalle. 2 The 
only hope of More was a return to the earlier and 
simpler life he saw daily passing farther away; for 
Campanella the new seventeenth century, with its 
eventful opening, was to be the dawn of a new age of 
social regeneration. 3 

Campanella differs from More in this, that he ad- 
hered more persistently to national ideals; he was 
struggling for the independence of the Italian states, but 
with the larger purpose of their national unity; More 
was willing to return to a more decentralized form of 
social organization. Both were spurred on by a 
knowledge of the evil conditions of their times. The 
aspect, however, more apparent to Campanella was the 
political ; that which impressed More was the economic 
or social. 

This very decided difference in view point must be 
noted. More was led to his discussion by a study of the 
economic and social conditions. In these he saw con- 
tradictions and flagrant wrongs. Campanella, and, it 

1 Lafargue, "Le Devenir Social," Vol. I, p. 312. 

2 Gonner, "The Social Philosophy of Rodbertus," London, 1899, 
pp. 5 et seq. 

3 Sigwart, "Kleine Schriften," Freiburg, 1889, Band I, p. 138. 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 141 

may be added, the Jesuits and the English radicals, go 
out chiefly from the religious or the religious-political 
point of view. They are therefore more largely political 
than social or economic reformers. 1 

As has been said the writings of Campanella bearing 
upon social questions were very limited in quantity. 
His purely philosophical works were far more extensive. 
As in the case of More the social and political environ- 
ment gave force and direction to his literary works 
touching political and social matters. These consist, 
as is the case with most social reformers, of two 
widely differing kinds. His imaginative tendency was, 
as in the case of Plato, offset by his sound, practical 
judgment. In connection with his highly theoretical 
"City of the Sun" should be read the practical treatise, 
"A Discourse touching the Spanish Monarchy." 2 

These two works illustrate widely differing methods. 
The "Discourses" are historical in nature and of a 
practical turn ; written, as were other Italian works, to 
give advice to a prince, they are similar to the "Laws" 
of Plato as compared with his "Republic." This work 
is marked by good sense and keen insight and shows 
power of practical observation. The " City of the Sun," 

1 Campanella spent twenty-six years in prison, where much of his 
writing was done. He was treated far more considerately than other 
radicals as he stayed in the church. Bruno, an anti-Catholic sceptic, 
was burned at the stake in Rome, 1600. 

2 Calenda, op. cit. 9 pp. 16 et seq. 



142 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

on the other hand, is idealistic, philosophic, and at times 
fantastic. The " Discourses" were a direct outgrowth 
of his study of the Spanish Monarchy and its relation to 
the Italian states which had come under its rule. The 
work was translated into English in 1654 at the request 
of Cromwell and became widely known. Its relation 
to Spain was very similar to the relation of "Utopia" to 
England. It was written primarily to lead to reform 
in the Monarchy, but like the "Utopia" it had a larger 
intent and contemplated the general political situa- 
tion. 

Only such reference will be here" made to the "Dis- 
courses" as may shed light on the general theories of 
Campanella. The sub-title is of some interest, taken 
in connection with the views of the author. Translated, 
it reads, "Some Directions and Practices whereby the 
King of Spain may attain to Universal Monarchy." 
Bearing on the same point he has in the Preface set forth 
the historic movements tending in this-, direction. The 
tendency shown by Campanella to shake loose*from the 
old manner of interpreting things in terms of theology 
is clearly shown in the Preface. "I shall, notwith- 
standing, in a brief and compendious way, give your 
Lordship an account what my judgment is concerning 
this subject and shall give in the causes of each several 

1 Citations are to the first English edition which was done from 
Latin in 1654, at the request of Cromwell. 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 143 

point ; in General first ; not after a natural nor Theo- 
logical but after a political way." 

In his views and in his conscious efforts to use a 
certain analytic method, Campanella was in advance of 
his contemporaries. In his "Discourses" he first lays 
down certain general principles which monarchs should 
follow and then proceeds historically to test their 
validity by examining the nations which had followed 
them. To certain conscious lines of action he attributes 
national strength and perpetuity. He furthermore 
clearly distinguishes between primary and secondary 
causes operating in social life. Speaking of historical 
causes he says, "Fate is nothing else than the con- 
curring of all the causes working by virtue of the first 
Cause." ■ 

In his social doctrines, as set forth in the "Discourses," 
he clearly recognizes the effect of physical environment 
as a cause in social evolution. 2 Thus his theory of 
social interpretation follows, perhaps not so distinctly 
as the "Spirit of Laws," those lines of reasoning later 
followed by Montesquieu, to whom is generally at- 
tributed the introduction of this style of reasoning. In 
his "City of the Sun" Campanella attributes social 

1 Campanella, " A Discourse touching the Spanish Monarchy, " etc., 
London, 1654, p. 1. 

2 Ibid. j Ch. XXVII. Here he discusses the influence of climate 
on fecundity and the increase of certain social and individual quali- 
ties. 



144 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

changes to the stars and lays stress on the general 
cosmography as an aid to an understanding of the 
control of human affairs. In his "Discourses" he 
treats in a discriminating manner of the relations of 
geographical environment to social change. As will 
be shown later this is a thoroughly socialistic view point. 
The highly theoretical nature of the "City of the Sun" 
is offset by the fact that Campanella had designed to 
found a republic in Calabria, the leading features of 
which were outlined in his "City of the Sun." There 
was, then, a very practical turn to the mind of the 
Calabrian monk, and when he touches political and 
social subjects he displays considerable capacity. 

4. Only the briefest notice can be taken here of the 
place Campanella held in the development of that 
thought his century did so much to bring forth. This 
task belongs rather to the study of the philosopher than 
of the socialist, but a sketch of the man must be very 
incomplete that omits it entirely. A clue to his work 
along lines of inductive science may be gained from 
his " Discourses." In the sphere of physical science he 
advised the rejection of the Aristotelian theories and 
methods and he attempted to demolish the ancient 
cosmography through the development of more ac- 
curate knowledge and the adoption of the inductive 
method. To this end he advised the Spanish monarch 
to close the Greek schools which must of necessity 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 145 

teach both the matter and the method of the Aristotelian 
school. 

He furthermore advised him to found and foster the 
Arabic schools, because of the attention they paid to 
mathematics and geography. 1 On this he says : "Then 
let him get about him the ablest cosmographers that he 
can and assign them liberal advances ; whose business it 
shall be to describe those various parts of the world 
wheresoever the Spaniards shall have set footing 
throughout the entire world; because that Ptolemy 
knew nothing of those countries at all. And let him by 
the industry of these mathematicians correct all the 
errors of the ancient geographers." Of the teachings 
of Aristotle he says, "Aristotle, though his teachings 
were impious, yet was he little of a hindrance to Alex- 
ander.' ' In his references to the ancient school Cam- 
panula shows the same radical attitude seen in his 
social theories. 

5. It is coming to be more clearly appreciated by 
students of social and economic science that it is nec- 
essary to study and to grasp the general philosophy of 
the world's great teachers. The method of Spencer 
in his synthetic philosophy shows how imperative is this 
demand. Underlying any special theory on social or 
economic life or process is to be sought the substratum 

1 Campanella, "A Discourse touching the Spanish Monarchy/' etc. 
Ch. X. 



146 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

of philosophy and the general world- view. Perhaps 
the German students have gone about this task most 
seriously and the term "Weltanschauung" has come to 
occupy a very prominent place in their vocabulary of 
social science. 1 Especially is this true with those 
periods when revolution is prevailing and when 
"natural rights" instead of historic or traditional privi- 
leges are emphasized; when the metaphysician, and 
not the historian or the dogmatist, has the field. Of 
socialism these statements are true in a very particular 
manner. Socialism is not only an economic, it is an 
ethical system as well, and pretends to reestablish man- 
kind on a new basis of right-thinking and right-dealing. 
It is necessary, then, to take frequent excursions into 
the realm of general philosophy and metaphysics to dis- 
cover those lines of reasoning, knowledge of which 
makes clearer the movements in the progress of social 
thought. 

Now in these early periods of the history of social 
thought, metaphysics and a very abstract philosophy 
bore about the same relation to social theory as do the 
natural sciences to-day. 2 Psychology, in its application 
to social and economic science, may be said to have 
displaced metaphysics and, dealing primarily with the 

1 Labriola, op. cit. y p. 14. 

2 " A long development of the inorganic and vital sciences was nec- 
essary before sociology or morals could attain their normal constitu- 
tion." — Ingram, "A History of Political Economy," p. 11. 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 147 

individual, may be called an outgrowth of that meta- 
physics which dealt with an extreme form of individ- 
ualism which helped to produce the French Revolution. 
Present-day social science, on the other hand, tends to 
interpret phenomena in terms of material thought, 
geography, climate, and the like. Early social study was 
carried on in the light of metaphysical and idealistic 
modes of thinking; modern social investigation ad- 
vances along lines drawn by the physical scientist and 
in the light of evolutionary thought. Applied in a 
spirit of reform or of revolution the one mode of thought 
produced an idealistic, Utopian, impracticable type of 
socialism; while the other gave a realistic, practical, 
scientific type. 

This metaphysical-theological mode of viewing so- 
ciety pretty largely prevailed till the opening of the 
nineteenth century and was at its height when Cam- 
panula wrote. Socialism during the nineteenth cen- 
tury yielded to the same all-conquering force of the 
scientific spirit and the socialism of Karl Marx was a 
natural result. What has been said may be summed up 
in the statement of Royce that a general philosophy is 
necessary to give unity to theories and facts and an 
explanation of life and of the world. 1 

1 AH great social schemes have been a result of an attempt to apply 
a general philosophy to social life. The history of the social ideas 
and ideals of Aristotle and Plato is but their attempted application of 



148 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

A glance, therefore, into the realm of philosophic 
thought in which Campanella moved may be useful in 
explaining his social scheme so largely metaphysical. 
As one of the most learned opponents of Aristotle, a 
forerunner of Bacon in the field of induction, a pre- 
cursor of Montesquieu in his mode of social interpreta- 
tion — and withal a most philosophic and mystical 
theorizer in social spheres, Campanula's career cer- 
tainly justifies a general study. 

In the first half of the seventeenth century the old 
system of philosophy was very seriously shaken. The 
Age of Discovery, the influences of the Reformation, 
and the liberation of the human mind following the 
Renaissance and other great movements, tended to 
destroy the old and usher in the new age. It was to the 
introduction of this new age that Campanella lent his 
efforts and directed his massive intellectual powers. It 
was as a disciple of Telesius, who had long opposed the 
earlier teachings, that Campanella first doubted and 
then denied the ancient dogma and helped to lead in the 
inductive age. Kozlowski says of him, 1 that he was the 
first philosopher who went over to the side of sense- 

their philosophy to social problems. The Metaphysics of Campanella 
helps to explain his peculiar views. The social philosophy and schemes 
in revolutionary France rest finally upon the metaphysics of the 
eighteenth century. Cf. Royce, "Spirit of Modern Philosophy," 
Boston and N. Y., 1892, pp. 1-2. 
1 Op, cit. t p. 21. 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 149 

perception, and attempted to construct a philosophy 
and a science in which there would be a large element 
of exact reasoning based upon actual evidence. His 
great work was the first attempt at a general synthesis 
of the sciences, an attempted synthetic philosophy. 
In this " Universalis philosophise sive metaphisicorum 
rerum intra propria dogmata partes IV," he pretends 
to treat the field of human knowledge. This work 
includes a variety of subjects among which is found his 
treatise on society as a part of the general philosophy. 

As Campanella pretended to apply his positive 
method to the social sciences it may be well to note its 
chief features. To him the knowledge gained by 
sense-perception was the only real knowledge. Led 
to draw a sharp distinction between this real knowl- 
edge and common opinion, he came to look upon ex- 
perience and induction as the only safe method of 
acquiring knowledge. 1 

There is, however, a most marked inconsistency in 
the career of Campanella. His thinking presents a 
peculiar mixture of idealism and realism, of spiritualism 
and materialism. In his general philosophy both as to 
matter and method he was a decided sensualist, ap- 
proaching the modern materialist. 2 In his social 

1 Wuttge, " Erkenntnistheorie und Ethik des Tommaso Campa- 
nella," p. 33. 

* Franck, op. cit. y Vol. II, pp. 162 et seq. 



150 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

teachings he was highly deductive and metaphysical. 
Hence in his "City of the Sun" there appears the most 
peculiar cosmogony and throughout his social scheme 
there runs a mystifying symbolism. Plato did not so 
completely involve his social scheme in his philosophy 
as did his later imitator. Thus some of his theory 
seems totally unreasonable when divorced from his 
general metaphysical scheme. In this scheme all 
matter is animated by a soul. There is an internal soul 
which corresponds to the soul of man and an external 
soul immanent in the world. The trees, animals, and 
rocks are all animated by this external soul. In his 
scheme of social organization the sun figures as the 
chief ruler; he describes the " City of the Sun." "Hoh" 
is the sun, which symbolizes " power," or the greatest 
controlling force, and is endowed with the external 
soul. In his theory, existence was based upon feeling; 
therefore everything existing had feeling. Knowledge 
was an accumulation of experiences, and hence every- 
thing could have knowledge. Love is defined as a 
state of perfect harmony existing in the world. In his 
idea of a perfect social state there are these three con- 
trolling forces: power, knowledge, and love. 

On these propositions rested Campanula's hope for 
social harmony. He conceived all existence as pre- 
senting this inner spiritual harmony and unity, and it 
is a result of an unnatural social arrangement that 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 151 

society is at war. This is only a more mystical, meta- 
physical way of stating the doctrine of natural law and 
order, essential and natural, which theory underlay the 
optimism of the eighteenth century. On this same idea 
of an inner unity and hence a possible harmony was 
founded the hopeful social philosophy of the early 
French socialists and indeed of those far down into the 
last century. Campanella taught that there was a 
double trinity, — power, knowledge and love, as found 
in man, external nature, and God. It was in the 
heavenly bodies that he saw the most perfect expression 
of this external soul; he was therefore much occupied 
with astrology and believed social affairs were in some 
mysterious manner controlled by the stars. 

6. As a result of Campanula's opposition to Aris- 
totle, he was inclined to take up the theories of Plato 
and in a way became very sympathetic with the teach- 
ings set forth in the " Republic." * In many of the 
main features of his social doctrines he was a follower 
of Plato; while in regard to his principal contention, 
that is, that a communistic society would succeed, he 
directly opposed Aristotle. He denies that the property 
bond is the only basis for social unity, and that the 
acquisitive spirit is the only one which furnishes the 
motive to toil. 

1 Fornari, " Delle Teorie economiche nelle Provincie Napolitane 
dal secolo XIII al XVIII," 1882, p. 186. 



152 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

No serious attempt has been made by the admirers of 
the Italian monk to dispute the place so long held by 
Bacon in the progress of human thought. It is of some 
interest, however, to note that while the great English- 
man was working out his system, another noted scholar 
was engaged along similar lines in Italy; and that 
Campanella was, by an application of the new scientific 
method, making for himself a place comparable to that 
which Bacon was to occupy in English culture. As a 
critic says : "Et voila ou Campanella voit 1'avenir de la 
philosophie et la regeneration de toutes les sciences." * 

7. Certain works have already been cited as sources 
of the thought of Campanella. Reference is here made 
to an influence of considerable importance exerted on 
the minds of reformers by the Jesuits and their institu- 
tions in South America. These seem to have been 
partly the cause and partly the result of Campanella's 
views. 

1 Adolphe Franck, " Ref ormateurs et publicistes de PEurope," 
Vol. II, p. 153. 

The following works are on the philosophy of Campanella: 
Kozlowski, "Die Erkenntnislehre Campanellas, ,, 1897; Strater, 
" Brief e iiber Italianischen Philosophen " ; "Zeitschrift der Ge- 
danke," 1864-1865; Carriere, "Die philosophische Weltanschauung 
der Reformationszeit, ,, 1847; Baudrillart, "Tableau des Theories 
Politique et des Idees Economiques au Seizieme Siecle," 1853; 
Rixner und Siber, " Leben und Lehrmeinungen Beriihrnter Physiker 
am Ende des XVI und am Anfange des XVII Jahrhunderts," 1829. 

Besides these, standard histories as Royce, Weber, Uberweg, and 
the like may be consulted. 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 153 

The attempt to bring these Jesuit communistic 
schemes into proper relationship to the prevalent social 
theories was induced by the title of the leading author- 
ity on this subject; "The history of Paraguay, con- 
taining amongst many, new, curious, and interesting 
particulars; a full and authentic account of the es- 
tablishment formed there by the Jesuits, from among 
the savage nations, in the very centre of barbarism; 
establishments allowed to have realized the sublime 
ideas of Fenelon, Thomas More, and Plato ; by Charle- 
voix, 1759." 

Of all attempts to organize an artificial society and to 
conduct affairs after a definite plan, with a decided 
creed and consciously wrought-out purpose, the Jesuit 
colony of South America furnishes the most conspicuous 
example. It was the most extensive and successful 
attempt at establishing a society after the dreams of 
idealists and reformers. This was a heroic example of 
the application of close, minute social control to the 
affairs of a society based upon communism. " Loyola 
contemplated calling into existence an organization, 
novel in character and in scope, and that fact he sought 
to impress on the world by a title conspicuously ex- 
pressive of superior pretensions." * 

Brief analysis will reveal close bonds of unity between 
the doctrines of Campanella and this Jesuit scheme of a 

1 Graham, "The Jesuits," p. 8. 



154 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

regenerated social organization. Both were at war 
with the same despotic power — the Spanish Monarchy. 
Campanella was striving to drive Spain from Southern 
Italy; the Jesuits, exiled from most lands, had set on 
foot a most ambitious plan to colonize in the South and 
finally to drive and keep Spain out of South America 
while their priests attempted to take North America. 
Here was a gigantic project contemplating the conquest 
of territory from Canada to Paraguay. Attention, 
however, can only be called to the communistic state of 
Paraguay. 1 

Specifically, then, wherein lies the similarity between 
the Jesuit schemes and the teachings of the Italian 
monk? In the first place, as has been said, both 
adhere to the idea of close control by the state of the 
form and process of organized society. Naturally, 
both advised the suppression of the individual with a 
weakening of the motive of selfishness and an en- 
largement of the power of the social will and of social 
motives. There is found with both the happy thought 
that labor can be made attractive and thus the need of 
an external motive be lessened or removed. 2 



1 kambaud, " Histoire Generate," Paris, 1895; Vol. V, pp. 698 
et seq. 

2 H On the one hand, every conceivable guarantee is provided for 
crushing out any germs of independent impulse that could pos- 
sibly allow momentary play to an individual member; to some 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 1 55 

In their practice the Jesuits also followed the theory 
of Campanella. The actual organization of the Jesuit 
colonies in Paraguay suggests very strongly the plan laid 
down in the "City of the Sun." The establishments 
were built around central points, in which centres were 
grouped all the inhabitants as Campanella suggested. 
In the midst of all was the church. On the outlying 
lands were the houses constructed for industrial pur- 
poses, but not for residences. In these and other 
external features there was a striking resemblance 
between the two schemes of social organization. 

Property relations in Paraguay were also similar to 
those set forth in the "City of the Sun." l The land 
that was in any community was the common property 
of the group; its entire control was in the government. 
In addition there was a portion set aside near the 
towns, which was in a special sense a commons, culti- 
vated by the community jointly. This feature re- 
sembled the early English "commons." 2 The prod- 
uct of this common labor and land was stored in maga- 

movement of dissent, however suppressed or strictly mental from 
another emanating from a superior." — Graham, "The Jesuits/' 
p. 14. 

1 Gothein, " Der christlich-sociale Staat der Jesuiten in Para- 
guay," Schmoller's "Staats- u. Socialwissenschaftliche Forschungen," 
Vol. 4, No. 4, p. 5. Cf. also, Graham, "Vanished Acadia." 

2 Kobler, "Der christliche Communismus in den Reductionen 
von Paraguay," etc., Wurzburg, 1877, p. 26. 



156 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

zines and kept for common distribution. The land lying 
farther out was divided every so often among the 
families, according to the number of members in each. 
This land was not considered private property; could 
not be bought nor sold by the person cultivating it ; and 
could be burdened in no manner in favor of the holder, 
nor to the injury of the community right therein. The 
same thing held true of the houses. Certain forms of 
personal property could, however, be acquired in the 
Jesuit colonies. This was one feature in their peculiar 
polity that furnished a motive to industry and frugality. 
Those who showed idleness were compelled to labor. 1 
An interesting regulation reflecting feudal influence re- 
quired all the population, men and women, to give one 
day per week to the cultivation of the commons and that 
without compensation. 

8. It is needless here to emphasize the very great 
importance of the Jesuits in the field of education. It 
may, however, be of some interest to examine their 
policy in Paraguay as it ran parallel to the idea of 
Campanella. They made a twofold division of the 
youth. The larger class devoted their energies to 
industrial lines. These were placed in schools where 
trades were learned and practised. Those not directly 
determined for industrial life were given culture of a 
more general kind, being trained in the more ele- 
1 Kobler, op. cit., pp. 26-27. 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 1 57 

mentary subjects, such as language and mathematics. 
As is done in all socialistic schemes, the Jesuits laid 
great stress on agriculture, training in this line being 
compulsory for all. The common fields referred to 
above were a kind of agricultural station where training 
was carried on. 

As in the scheme of Campanella the Jesuits gave much 
attention to the industrial arts. This fact contributed 
much to the early success of the social experiments in 
South America. 1 Commerce and trade in Paraguay 
were all controlled by the public power, none being 
left in private hands. 

In these colonies there appeared the same problems 
which all socialism must face. The abandonment of 
private property destroyed at once the basis of social 
unity and a chief motive to industry. In Paraguay 
this lack seems to have been supplied largely by re- 
ligious enthusiasm. 2 

9. Campanella and the Jesuit reformers differed on 
the question of the family. In Paraguay the Jesuits 
made provision for the continuance of the family, 
though marriage was very closely controlled by the 
public power. Both were eager to suppress selfishness, 

1 Gothein, op. cit. y p. 9. 

2 "The spiritual attachment to their order, the strongest perhaps 
that ever influenced any body of people, is characteristic of the Jesuits 
and serves as a key to the genius of their policy." — Robertson, "His- 
tory of Charles V," Philadelphia, 1883, Vol. II, p. 453. 



158 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

ambition, and greed; these must be eliminated if 
society is to reach its highest purpose. The Jesuits 
favored the employment of free labor as opposed to 
slaves, while Campanella under conditions would allow 
slavery. 

Certain features marking these colonies are in line 
with early social ideals. In the first place, they were 
founded in an isolated portion of the earth away from 
the traditions and established institutions, with none of 
the forms of ancient culture to disturb. Again, they 
were planted among a barbarian people ; among a peo- 
ple about as near Rousseau's "man of nature" as could 
be hoped for. It is also true that the originators of this 
social scheme were fitted to* bring such an experiment 
to success because of their zeal and devotion and of the 
definiteness of their plan, to which they consistently 
adhered. The religious enthusiasm and exaggerated 
pietism, so characteristic of communistic experiments, 
was also not lacking among the Jesuits. There has 
been a variety of attempts to sglve the social problem 
through state or school and church. ' The communist 
colonies of the Jesuits in Paraguay were marked by 
the most serious effort to solve it by means of the 
church. 

There is, however, a more important and interesting 
feature of the Jesuit teaching bearing upon the social- 
ism of Campanella and indeed upon all social theory of 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 159 

this type. It has been already pointed out that all 
forms of Utopian socialism base the hope of a recon- 
structed society upon the possibility of abandoning the 
forms and traditions of the past, in order that a social 
state may be set up after a preconceived plan. It is 
therefore of importance to note that of the political 
thinkers of that age the Jesuits were the first to recog- 
nize the changeable nature of the state. It was well 
along in the new era before the theory was seriously 
questioned that the church and the state were one. 
The sacredness and stability attributed to the church 
had also been posited of the state. The stability of 
monarchy had as its support the idea of the inviola- 
bility and perpetuity of the church. It was largely 
due to Jesuit teaching that this dogma was aban- 
doned. The church was left to enjoy protection 
from innovation, while the state and soon society 
itself were to be shaken to their foundations as they 
came to be viewed more and more as subject to the 
social will. 1 

10. It is easier to say that the Jesuit socialistic 
experiment did much to mould the thought of Campa- 
nella than to measure the extent of that influence. The 
inference, however, seems safe that their plans formed 
one general social scheme. Certain it is that the order 

1 Gothein, op. tit., pp. 2-3. See also Gierke, " Althusius," Pt. 2, 
Ch. 1, p. 65. 



160 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

was at that time attracting universal attention. Rulers 
and students were watching with interest and appre- 
hension as the Jesuits carried on their experiment. 
That Campanella has voiced some of their views seems 
highly probable. 1 

Back of the two books from the pen of the Italian, 
and inspiring his practical experiments, there was a 
large public purpose in which the Jesuits took part. 
He had advocated in his writings and had proposed a 
practical plan on a small scale of what they projected 
so large. Both were thinking of an enlarged Catholic 
rule; a more extended papal control; a Catholic 
system, reformed, liberalized, and reconstructed. He 
and the Jesuit teachers saw, what the modern church- 
men are slow at grasping, that the church must meet 
the social needs if it is to maintain its place and power. 
They saw that the church must enter the field of social 
reform. The closing decades of the last century have 
witnessed much the same movement on the part of the 
church. 

That Campanula's teaching had its influence on the 
Jesuit system seems also true. The two men most 
influential in Jesuit society were Italians, Cataldino 
and Maceta. They were, in all likelihood, known to 
Campanella; there was also, in all probability, a 
common knowledge of the principles they so vigorously 

1 Gothein, op. cit. t p. 3. 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA l6l 

applied. On this Kirchenheim says: "Such was the 
Christian social state of the Jesuits in Paraguay, of 
which Campanella in the prison had written. It is evi- 
dent that this state agreed not merely in general princi- 
ples, but in its details with the scheme of Campanella. " 
"The philosophic writers and these practical reformers 
attempted to build a state after a given mechanical 
form." l 

ii. One feature worthy of note was the cosmopolitan 
views of Campanella. A few general facts may help 
explain the breadth of his view. The first one of a 
very general nature was his philosophic habit of mind. 
Philosophy, dealing as it does with the world of the 
abstract, is apt to lose the particular in the general and 
the special in the universal. History furnishes many 
illustrations of this. One of the best examples was the 
condition in Germany during her "humiliation," while 
her great philosophers were "ruling the air." As a 

1 On this subject consult: Gierke, "Althusius" ; Pierre Francois 
Xavier de Charlevoix, "Histoire du Paraguay," Paris, 1757, 2 vols.; 
Gothein, "Ignatius Loyola und die Gegenreformation," 1885; "Der 
christlich-sociale Staat der Jesuiten in Paraguay"; "Staats- und 
Socialwissenschaftliche Forschungen," Band 4, Heft 4; Handelmann, 
"Geschichte von Brasilien," i860; Gottheil, "Die Jesuiten Colonien 
Paraguay" ; Bonifacio, " Les Jesuites et Pedagogie au XVI me Steele," 
1894; Hughes, "Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits," 
1892; E. Friedberg, "Die Mittelalterlichen Lehren iiber das Ver- 
haltniss von Staat und Kirche," 1874; Dollinger, "Kirche und 
Kirchen.," etc, 1861 ; Kirchenheim, "L'Etemelle Utopie," 1897, p. 133. 

M 



162 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

land she was disunited and humiliated. Her thinkers 
were too cosmopolitan to be national; they dealt too 
much with the abstract and the universal to care for the 
local and practical affairs. This state of things holds 
in Italy in the age of Campanella. While the nation, 
already divided, was thus solidifying into many war- 
ring kingdoms, to endure for three hundred years, her 
philosophers were busy with the most general and 
abstract reasoning. 

Again, Campanella was, in a way, a man without a 
country, much as was the greatest cosmopolitan socialist, 
Karl Marx. He, too, was a kind of world-citizen. 
Moreover, Italy was the land in which had lingered 
the tradition of a world-empire. 

As a devoted follower of the papal church and an 
active member of the clerical orders, Campanella was 
versed in the history of the universal church, and sym- 
pathized with her aspirations to hold universal empire. 
Since the downfall of the Roman Empire the papal power 
alone had given unity to Christendom, and in it was the 
hope and aspiration to universal rule. Campanella 
believed with Pascal, Grotius, and other seventeenth- 
century thinkers in the unity of the human race, and 
looked forward toward the time when all peoples should 
unite under one world-power. He looked for a more 
perfect social unity through the reestablishment of a 
liberalized Papal See and through the growth of a 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 163 

Christian empire under the rule of the Spanish monarch 
as vicegerent of the Roman power. 1 

At first, Campanella was devoted to the Spanish 
Monarchy and believed Spain would one day come to 
universal dominion. Like so many, he was slow to learn 
from the events of his day, and his belief in a world- 
power seemed very genuine. This was, of course, the 
direction thought took till the spirit 2 and practice of 
mercantilism broke up the movement toward world- 
unity. As a recent writer puts it: "The cosmopoli- 
tanism of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the 
dreams of the world-unity, have been replaced by a set 
of narrower ideas concerning customs, laws, literature, 
and art by a set of independent states, each striving to 
realize to its fullest its independent aptitudes and 
characteristics. Thus do the nations of Western 



1 It would be interesting to bring the ideas of Campanella into 
contrast with certain radical teaching in England of the Stuart Mon- 
archy. One Dutch writer, Peter Cornelius, held that this and the old 
system of society should come to an end, and that Christendom should 
become a world-state under the rule of one magistracy. Gooch, 
"History of English Democratic Ideas of the Seventeenth Century," 
Cambridge, 1898, p. 209. 

2 One of his biographers says: "Noch vor seiner Ruckkehr nach 
Stilo hatte er in dieser Richtung geschrieben; iiber die christliche 
Monarchic, iiber das Regiment der Kirche ; das Ideal einer christlichen 
Weltmonarchie unter dem Pabst als Oberhaupt schwebte ihm vor; 
die spanische Macht sei berufen sie zu verwirklichen." — Sigwart, 
"Kleine Schriften," Vol. 1, p. 137. 



164 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

Europe pass through a period marked by this narrow 
spirit of extreme nationalism till Adam Smith and the 
Physiocrats again teach the lessons of a broader world- 
view and sympathy." * 

Socialists have been about equally divided as to 
the breadth of their sympathies. Race environment, 
training, and the conditions of the age have had much 
to do with the tendencies of social students in this 
regard. Illustrating those who were decidedly national 
in their sympathies may be named Cabet, Rodbertus, 
and Lassalle. Those of a greater breadth of mind 
were More, Campanella, Weitling, and Karl Marx. 
Rodbertus stands as the best representative of the 
former, and Marx of the latter class. 2 

12. Enough has been said already to indicate the 
general direction of the political thought of Campanella. 
Living as he did during the struggle over the great 
national problems, the consolidation of national groups 
and of absolute monarchies, he was naturally influenced 
by it. Along with his predecessors he idealized the 
"prince" and was devoted to a centralized form of 
government. Along with most reformers of this type 
he believed in a hierarchy of personal control. In this 
respect the early socialistic schemes differ from any 

1 Reinsch, "World Politics," N. Y., 1900, pp. 5 et seq. 

2 On the recent tendency toward the international socialism in 
Italy, see Labriola, op, cit., pp. 19-20. 



LIFE AND TIMES OF CAMPANELLA 165 

creed of anarchism. They always provide for social 
order. There is only a slight tendency toward de- 
mocracy in the earlier social schemes; in fact, very 
little in the later ones. 

One of Campanula's contemporaries presents a very 
interesting contrast touching political theory. The 
Italian advocates an absolute form of monarchy coupled 
with the destruction of private property, especially in 
land. Harrington, on the other hand, favored a limited 
monarchy and a careful preservation of private property 
in land. 1 Harrington made private ownership of land 
an absolute essential to the permanence of society and 
the protection of the individual. Campanella saw the 
permanence of social peace and the happiness of the 
individual possible only through the abandonment of 
property. With one the existence of property meant 
social and political equilibrium ; to the other it was the 
prime disturbing element and a fruitful source of dis- 
cord. 2 Harrington would create a hierarchy with 
property very closely controlled by government ; Cam- 
panella created a hierarchy with no semblance of 
property. 

1 "Oceana," 1656. 

2 See Gooch, op. cit., pp. 290 et seq. 



CHAPTER V 

THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA 

i. Probably no body of men ever so completely 
controlled the economic aspects of society as did the 
Jesuits. The general propositions laid down touching 
the efforts of the Jesuit society at complete social con- 
trol, find their best expression in the theories contained 
in "City of the Sun" of Thomas Campanella. His 
position in the church has already been suggested as 
leading him to his theory of a reconstructed society. 
This general theory had, indeed, been exemplified 
throughout the history of the papal church. For 
centuries the church had attempted in a most studied 
manner to control affairs, civil, social, and religious. 
Nowhere in history has a system flourished whose or- 
ganization and orders so entirely ignored the natural 
laws of society, and so thoroughly managed the social 
process by the mandates of councils. Out of catholic 
culture might be expected socialistic theories and ex- 
periments ; in the general conflict between the social or 
centralized control and the free play of the individual 
will, the former would naturally prevail. The extensive 
control of the papal church, carried over into the in- 
dustrial sphere, would naturally destroy private initia- 

166 



THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA 167 

tive and abolish individualistic methods of industry. 
Individualism in industry and its accompanying progress 
were products of the Reformation and flourished in those 
lands where papal power was most thoroughly shaken. 

2. In connection with these more general teachings 
of Campanella there remain certain special features 
of his social scheme worthy of notice. 

Of his theory of labor it may be said that he opposed 
slavery and advocated an organization of society upon 
the basis of free labor. In his ideal society it was not 
the custom to keep slaves. 1 Slavery, idleness, and vice 
he places in causal relationship. Of the seventy 
thousand persons in the Naples of his day only ten or 
fifteen thousand were employed. On one hand, he 
saw masses of overburdened, overdriven laborers; on 
the other, the idle and vicious wealthy. The scheme 
of Campanella provides for a better distribution of 
social burdens. In true Marxian fashion he affirms 
that, were all required to labor, the labor-day would be 
shortened to four hours. 2 This condition he saw at- 
tainable only through the destruction of a profit-pro- 
ducing system; this change would compel all to labor 
and make possible the reduction of the labor-day to 
four hours. 3 But in the "City of the Sun," while duty 
and work are distributed among all, it falls to each one 
to work only about four hours every day. 

1 "City of the Sun," p. 237. 2 Ibid., p. 238. 3 Ibid. 



1 68 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

The chief feature of the problem, then, is the dis- 
tribution of the social burden. This factor, the lead- 
ing one in the socialistic propaganda, was clearly seen 
and discussed by Campanella. More had seen the 
same problem and had advised such a social reorgani- 
zation as would reduce the labor-day to six hours. It 
will be remembered that this idea was proposed before 
the machine had come to give its name to the age, to 
transform industry, and by augmenting the power of 
labor, to make possible a shorter labor-day with a still 
larger product. With Karl Marx the machine figured 
very largely, and made possible the shortening of the 
labor-day or the same length of day with an increased 
product, giving rise to surplus-value. Campanella 
drew his conclusions from a study of society still in the 
handicraft stage. 

3. A fundamental proposition underlies Campanula's 
theory of the short day. It is necessary that all should 
labor if the task for some be lightened. When all the 
members of society share in its toils and sacrifices, then 
will the laborer be freed from his long hours and his 
irksome toil. It is the fact that the social drones are 
carried by the laboring masses that explains the hard- 
ship of labor. In Marxian terms, when none live from 
surplus-value, then can the labor-day be shortened. 
With Campanella, as with most socialists, it is the con- 
trol of private property that creates a leisure class, and 



THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA 169 

this leisure-class, thus controlling the product of in- 
dustry, exploits labor and lives from surplus-value. 
Modern socialism has devised more refined means of 
meeting this problem ; the method of Campanella was 
bold and crude. 1 He proposed to throw all the members 
of society back upon labor for their subsistence by 
destroying private property, by instituting a system 
of communism. 

The foundation of the system of Campanella, then, 
was the crudest form of communism. In his ideal 
state all things were held in common, and dispensation 
was made by the magistrates. 2 His communism is, 
however, of a broad and rather noble type. It does not 
merely contemplate material wealth. It means the 
participation of all the members of the community in 
all the benefits of social progress, temporal, and spirit- 
ual. " Arts, honors, and pleasures are all in common 
and are held in such manner that no one can appropriate 
anything to himself." 3 

4. The leading causes of the existence and accumula- 
tion of private property are clearly given. At the basis 
lies the need of gain, that a legacy may be left to wife 
and child. The home, then, is the leading fact in the 

1 "All things are common with them. " — "City of the Sun/' 
p. 225. 

2 Ibid., pp. 225-226. 

8 "But with them the rich and poor make up one community; 
they are rich because they want nothing, poor because they possess 
nothing." — Ibid., p. 238. 



170 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

development of private property. Riches, dignity, and 
honor are of importance when there is a line of descent 
and the dignity of a family name to be maintained. 
The clergy, monks, prelates, etc., are less useful be- 
cause of this inordinate love of wealth. 1 

Campanella differs from Morelly and later writers 
in seeing a vital relationship between the family organi- 
zation and private property. With him the home 
fosters the desire for acquisition and leads to the ac- 
cumulation of property. This being his attitude to 
the problem, his theory of the family can be easily 
conceived. In the system devised by Campanella 
there was community of wives. He abandoned the 
monogamous family. The dwellers in his ideal city 
have all things in common, even the women. This 
custom they defend from the writings of the Apostolic 
Fathers, the writings of Clement, Socrates, Cato, and 
Plato. In brief but unmistakable terms the celibate 
monk advises the Platonic theory of community of 
wives; it is defended as scriptural, historical, and 
expeditious. 

The union of the sexes, as treated by Campanella, 
must conserve the larger interests of the state in supply- 
ing society with a healthy, strong population. With 

1 "They say all private property is acquired and improved, for 
the reason that each one of us by himself has his own home and 
wife and children; from this self-love springs." — " City of the Sun," 
p. 225. 



THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA 171 

severe satire he says: " Indeed they laugh at us who 
exhibit a studious care for our breed of horses and dogs, 
but neglect the breeding of human beings." * In this, 
as in all parts of his scheme, Campanella has the social 
view point. The pleasure, pride, and dignity of the 
individual life must yield and be subordinated to the 
welfare of the commonwealth. 2 "For they say that 
children are bred for the preservation of the species 
and not for individual pleasure, as St. Thomas so often 
asserts. Therefore the breeding of children has ref- 
erence to the commonwealth and not to individuals 
except in so far as they are constituents of the common- 
wealth." 3 

In no other respect does his artificial view of society 
make itself so apparent as in his regulation of the family 
in accordance with the above principle. The men and 
women were to have no choice as to each other's com- 
panionship. Emotion or natural affection plays no 
part in his scheme. Desire and impulse, he declares, 
are wrong principles by which the most important 
feature of social life is controlled. "And thus they dis- 
tribute male and female breeders to the best natures 
according to philosophical rules." 4 Where Plato had 

1 Ibid., p. 224. 

2 Cf. "A Discourse touching the Spanish Monarchy," English 
translation, 1654, p. 70. 

8 "City of the Sun," p. 236. 4 Ibid., p. 237. 



172 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

advised the use of the lot in mating, Campanella would 
have the matter adjusted by magistrates. In some in- 
stances regard was had for individual desire and choice, 
but in those cases alone where no harm could result to 
the state. 

5. As a corollary to the foregoing proposition there 
was no room for a leisure class in the scheme of Cam- 
panella. As has been said, it was necessary that all 
should labor if the burden of the toiler be lightened. 
With one-fifth of the population of Naples employed and 
four-fifths idle, long days and heavy work were a 
grinding necessity; with all the population produc- 
tively employed a reduced labor-day would follow. 
Provision was made for the indigent aged; they were 
public charges. There was to be no " sturdy vagabond " 
class, as these must engage in some industry. There 
was no chance for the growth of a beggar class, as 
labor was suited to the capacities of all. 

Campanella saw the dangers arising from idleness in 
all three classes. The idle rich went to extremes in 
luxury and indulgence, and fell a prey to vice. The 
industrious were to spend their leisure in recreation, 
study, and self-improvement lest they degenerate. 
Efforts must be made to prevent the lame, blind, and 
unfortunate from becoming a public charge. Em- 
phasis to-day is placed upon the dangers of the idle 
rich; Campanella called attention to the need of pre- 



THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA 173 

venting an idle poor class. " No physical defect renders 
a man incapable of service except the decreptitude 
of old age, and even the deformed are useful in consul- 
tation^ * 

His opposition to slavery, above referred to, rests 
largely upon this principle. Slavery, he says, corrupts 
the population and leads to idleness and degeneracy 
in the free population — an argument used against this 
institution when it was struggling for its life in its last 
stronghold. 

Thus, the labor-theory of Campanella, though very 
imperfect, contains several modern notions concerning 
the length of the labor-day. He advocated a shorter 
day. He advised schemes for self-improvement for the 
leisure time. Slavery was opposed because it led to 
idle, vicious habits. No moral standards are laid down. 
The problems are not discussed as having distinct 
ethical import, social utility being the sole test applied. 
No reference is made to any rights inhering in the laborer 
or in the slave. The main consideration is that the 
state be not harmed, nor the social manners corrupted. 
The criteria applied to actions are public welfare and 
social expediency. 

6. The question of the demand and supply of labor 
is but briefly discussed. Of the nature of wants, the 
extent of the market, and kindred questions he has said 

1 " City of the Sun," p. 239. 



174 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

little. Enough is said to show that he believed that 
labor employed four hours daily would supply all the 
necessities, but few of the luxuries of life. This is in 
line with sound socialistic doctrine. Reduce all society 
to the grade of ordinary labor and the demand for luxu- 
ries would be much lessened. 1 

Labor is not employed to supply foreign markets. 
His theory involves a self-sufficing industrial state, — 
a state producing all it needs and little more. Hence 
commerce was little fostered in the " City of the Sun." 
Exchange, in so far as allowed, was a simple form of 
barter. Campanella was opposed to money and its 
use, and believed a system of natural economy with 
barter was preferable. 

7. In speaking of the form of political organization 
advocated by Campanella, it is well to recall that he was 
a citizen of an Italian city, and that the structure most 
familiar to him was the Italian city-state. As in the 
earlier centuries the dramatic conditions in Italy had 
inspired Dante and furnished a theme to the great poet- 
philosopher Machiavelli, so in the seventeenth century 
conditions could well suggest the principles of govern- 
ment advanced by Campanella. Though an advocate 
of absolute social equality arising from common property 
he was devoted to absolutism in government. 

1 Rodbertus, " Overproduction and Crises." Introduction by 
Professor Clark, London, 1898, pp. 16-17. 



THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA 175 

A feature of considerable interest was that within 
limitations the government was elective. The magis- 
trates were elected, choice being limited to those whose 
training in the arts and sciences made them most 
competent to rule. The chief magistrates must be 
above thirty-five years of age. If eminently fitted, they 
held office for life. Citizenship was limited to men of 
over twenty years, who formed an assembly not unlike 
the Ecclesia of Clisthenes. 

From what has been said, it will appear that the 
governing body in the state depended neither upon an 
aristocracy of wealth nor of birth. Some new prin- 
ciple, therefore, must serve as selective for the governing 
classes. This the author finds in the realm of science. 
Campanella wished to establish an aristocracy of edu- 
cation and put the control of society into their hands. 
The teachers of the arts and sciences, he urged, are best 
fitted to choose the rulers in the different departments. 
That higher education unfits men for practical duties 
and political services he denies, while at the same time 
he condemns the hereditary principle of selection. 
" We, indeed, are more certain that such a very learned 
man has the knowledge of governing than you who put 
ignorant persons in authority and consider them 
suitable merely because they have sprung from the 
rulers or have been chosen from a powerful faction." ■ 

l " City of the Sun," p. 229. 



176 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

Campanella has the utmost confidence in the trained 
mind in public life, and has no confidence in heredity 
as a selective principle. 1 

8. There has been perhaps no political principle 
more generally accepted nor more often acted upon than 
that of centralization of political power. Historical 
development has brought with it the suppression of 
local patriotism and local pride in view of a larger 
grouping. This principle has been recognized from 
the formation of the Delian Confederation down to the 
organization of the German Empire. In these instances, 
as in countless others, this spirit of particularism has 
been most destructive to perfect socialization and 
complete national unity. Advocates of a more liberal 
policy and of a larger social unity, from Miltiades down 
to Bismarck, have not hesitated to weaken or destroy 
this local spirit which was a foe to the centralizing pro- 
cess. Such friends of consolidation have, however, 
generally dealt with politically organized bodies such as 
small kingdoms, free cities, semi-sovereign states, and 
the like ; few have had the hardihood to fall back of 
these and interfere with the socializing, or, as some 
say, the de-socializing force of the family-group. 

The author of the " City of the Sun" did not overlook 
the fact that in the abandonment of private property, 
of family life, and the attendant desire for inheritance, 
1 Cf. The reasoning of Plato, "Republic," Bk. VI. 



THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA 1 77 

he had undermined the foundations of society and 
broken some of the strongest bonds of social unity. 
In meeting this situation he reveals some interesting 
social philosophy. He has a definite theory of social 
unity. Campanella was too wise to propose the 
destruction of the existing social forces without meeting 
the inevitable question as to the motives necessary to 
industrial endeavor; he was too thoughtful to banish 
the common centres in which social interests might 
gather and not consider the probability of finding a 
new basis of social equilibrium. 

In his theory of social unity, Campanella partly 
follows Plato. When discussing the family and its 
place in the state, Plato condemns the family as an 
obstacle to the perfect devotion of the citizen to the 
state. Banish family life and the citizen has no cause 
for pride, no object of devotion, no stimulus to effort 
and sacrifice except the state. The state, as an in- 
stitution, is then without a rival. More than once has 
this principle had historical confirmation. It was 
evidenced in the unconquerable spirit of Sparta in 
Plato's day. It was in the plan of Hildebrand when he 
enforced celibacy among the clergy of Germany; 
and to this general theory the Italian monk was no 
stranger. He had, indeed, given warning against the 
dissension and disunion that were weakening and 
threatening Italy and Spain, As a celibate monk he 



178 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

was devoted to the Holy Church only. The recent 
history of Italy was not wanting in examples, as Guelph 
and Ghibelline struggled for mastery, and great families 
with their unbridled ambitions threatened, even de- 
stroyed, the unity, and threatened the very existence of 
the Italian state. 

It is, then, not much wonder that Campanella, de- 
voted to one supreme organization, should have op- 
posed those forces tending to disunion, and among them 
considered the family as an enemy to close social unity. 
He condemns the family as the source of self-love. 
Dishonesty arises in the state, since to acquire property 
and honor for the family statesmen will be led to grasp 
at the property of the state and misuse public office. 
One would think he wrote of the twentieth instead of 
the seventeenth century, and of the United States in- 
stead of Naples. He sums up his thought as follows, 
" But when we take away self-love, there remains only 
love for the state." * 

A second feature in his theory recalls an interesting 
part of the argument of Aristotle. It will be remem- 
bered that in his " Ethics," Aristotle places great em- 
phasis upon friendship as a principle of social unity and 
cooperation. 2 Campanella, while briefly discussing the 

l " City of the Sun," p. 225. 

2 "Ethics," Ch. IX. Cf. Adam Smith, "Theory of Moral Senti- 
ments," expressing the same views. 



THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA 179 

family, shows his sympathy with this theory. As has 
been stated, love based upon sex or filial devotion had 
no place in his system. There is, however, one type 
of affection which he considers a true social force. 
"Moreover that love born of eager desire is not known 
among them, only that born of friendship." * 

To the objection that with a society based on com- 
munism, mutual helpfulness, so often the basis of 
friendship and of social interdependence, would be 
lacking (people having neither the need nor the power 
to aid), Campanella wisely remarks that material 
interests are not the only ones in society, nor is their 
absence the destruction of friendship. " Friendship is 
recognized among them in war, in infirmity, and in the 
art contests whereby they aid one another.' ' 2 

The theory of Campanella was, moreover, open to 
another objection: the one which in ancient times 
Aristotle used with such force against Plato. Aristotle 
had urged that with selfish personal motives removed, 
under a system of common property, industry would 
suffer, and what was everybody's business would be 
nobody's business. 3 Campanella, in restating the 
position of Aristotle, expresses in a very modern form 
the chief objection to socialism: " Under such circum- 
stances no one will be willing to labor when he expects 



1 << 



City of the Sun," p. 237. 2 Ibid., p. 226. 

3 Aristotle, "Politics," Jowett's translation, Vol. I, p. 30. 



180 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

to live from the labor of others." * Admitting this 
difficulty, he believes that the consciousness of union 
with a larger social aggregate will supply motive, and 
that industry will not decline. "But I declare to you 
that they burn with so great a love for their fatherland 
as I could scarcely have believed possible.'' 2 Cam- 
panella urged that a society based upon common 
property had equal chances of success with one founded 
on private property. 

The subject, however, may be approached from a 
different view point. The strength of the motive to 
labor need only be proportionate to the onus of labor. 
In the system of Campanella labor is considered neither 
severe nor dishonorable. All labor is honorable, and 
hence no class-distinctions can arise from the nature of 
the employment. The society described is one where 
all are employed, and where idleness alone is condemned. 
"Wherefore no one thinks it lowering to wait on table 
or to work in the kitchen or fields." 3 Labor, in its 
ideal state, is a part of civic duty, and obloquy attaches 
to idleness as it does to the neglect of civic activity. 
"Those occupations that require the most labor, such 
as working in metals and building, are the most praise- 
worthy among them." 4 Here, then, is a new type of 
nobility, — a nobility based upon toil, an aristocracy of 
labor. 

1 "City of the Sun," p. 225. 3 Ibid., p. 237. 

2 Ibid., pp. 225-226. 4 Ibid., p. 246. 



THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA i8l 

9. This argument from Campanella rests upon that 
idea of labor which was so much enlarged on by the 
great French socialist, Fourier. Campanella hoped to 
so adapt employment to inclination and to capacity 
that labor would be freed of much of its pain and sac- 
rifice. This was a part of his scheme for maintaining 
the efficiency of labor when the strong motive of indi- 
vidual gain had been removed. 

This coordination of powers and occupation began 
in the schools where the youths were trained in those 
lines chosen because of fitness and inclination. Men 
of lesser intellect were kept in agricultural pursuits; 
those of peculiar powers were put at the arts and sciences. 
Those who at like age showed similar tastes and facul- 
ties were so classified industrially as to bring harmony 
to the state. 1 By this means, he hoped to avoid that 
anarchy in the industrial world due to a bad distribu- 
tion of the supply of labor. According to Campanella, 
there is possible such an adjustment of the labor- 
supply that none will avoid labor because it is either 
dishonorable or distasteful. In this theory is expressed 
the hope of social unity, of individual satisfaction, and of 
industrial efficiency. 

It will thus be seen that the theory of Campanella 
stands in marked contrast to the theory of selfishness or 
the theory based upon the concept of the " economic 

1 Ibid., p. 234. 



1 82 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

man." The "economic man" was man viewed clearly 
from the individualistic standpoint; Campanula's 
concept of man is gained by seeing him in his social 
attitude — man a mere function of society. These 
characters are about equally mythical. A system of 
social philosophy built upon either idea is untrue 
to the facts. Man never has been, probably never will 
be, so egoistical as classical economics assumed. Man 
may never be so highly socialized as Campanella pic- 
tured him. Each theory has its lessons as to the 
possibilities of socialism. The theory of Campanella 
suggests many things concerning the possible limitations 
on human selfishness. His was a most attractive dream 
of a peaceful society, composed of very highly socialized 
members. The teaching of classical economics has 
its valuable warnings touching those obstacles to that 
happy state whose primary feature was an absence of 
selfishness. 

10. The teachings of Campanella, thus briefly 
sketched, display a bold thinker, for his day and place, 
as well as a man of sound social and political judgment. 
For one writing from the cloister, he possesses clear 
insight into the facts of society and government. The 
romance, "City of the Sun," must be classed as one of 
the pioneer socialistic documents. What he has said 
is not great in quantity but is very rich in suggestive- 
ness. He saw and appreciated certain principles 



THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA 183 

since laid hold of and worked into the system of modern 
socialism. In his teachings on the possibility of social 
reorganization he follows that type of interpretation 
which had been dominant for two thousand years. He 
combined in an interesting manner a knowledge of 
practical affairs with a subtle philosophic insight and 
a keen metaphysical sense. 

11. As has been intimated, there exist some interest- 
ing points of comparison between the social teachings 
of the two philosophers, Campanella and Bacon. 
What Bacon had to say on social life was left in his short 
but interesting fragment, the "New Atlantis." In this, 
he gave the general outlines of a perfect social state. 

Bacon was a statesman, philosopher, man of affairs, 
and a contemporary of the Italian monk. From the 
first, he was inclined toward politics and statecraft. 
He believed a life devoted to the creation of a perfect 
social state was the loftiest type of life. After devoting 
himself for a time to social study, he turned toward 
philosophy and abandoned his social schemes. The 
"New Atlantis" was written at the same time as the 
"City of the Sun," though it seems improbable that 
their illustrious authors ever met or were aware of each 
other's theories or social studies. 

It has often been lamented that for various reasons 
certain great writers did not complete the works they 
had begun; as when William Archer Butler left un- 



1 84 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

completed his history of philosophy, after writing two 
brilliant volumes ; or when Henry Buckle laid aside his 
pen after writing his remarkable " Introduction to a 
History of Civilization in England," not having 
reached his main theme. The same regrets may be 
expressed that Bacon never finished, as he expected to 
do, a great political masterpiece. What he has left in 
"New Atlantis" shows what the nature of his thinking 
was, and illustrates the application of his philosophic 
thought to social science. 1 

Bacon occupied much the same position in English 
thought as did Campanella in Italian. As the latter had 
opposed the method and teachings of Aristotle, so had 
Bacon stood out against the deductive, abstract reason- 
ing of his time. In his social theory he advocated com- 
plete social reconstruction. He treated society as a 
structure and not as an organism; a thing to be con- 
trolled by social and not by natural law. He also ex- 
aggerated the influence of the social will, consciously 
ordering social progress. It was therefore natural that 
he should place a large importance upon knowledge. 
He advocated the creation of a social condition where 
the control should be in the hands of philosophers. 

12. The opening of the "New Atlantis" recalls the 

1 It was the intention to treat fully the movement in England 
during the Commonwealth. The main character has been ably 
discussed by L. H. Berens in the "Digger Movement in the Days 
of the Commonwealth," London, 1906. 



THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA 185 

features marking other works of its kind. Under the 
influence of an age of discovery, Bacon pictures a com- 
pany driven to an unknown land. There the usual 
fear of the natives terrorizes them — a fear born of the 
knowledge of the habits of civilization. The usual 
detail is indulged in describing the material aspects of 
this terra incognita. The same happy disillusionment 
occurs upon finding the barbarian life so mild and their 
manners so peaceable. "New Atlantis" is a city where 
ideal conditions exist. Nature, as pictured there, is 
most prodigal in her care for the physical comfort of 
the happy citizens. The formation is fitted to every 
need, the material conveniences standing in marked 
contrast to the London of Bacon's day, or even the 
modern city. 

According to Bacon, the end of government is the 
welfare of the people. The king of the ideal state must 
rule by virtue of his ability and his inclination to rule 
for the commonwealth. The state should be, to a large 
extent, self-sufficient. Foreign influence must be care- 
fully guarded lest the oft-recorded invasions of vice, 
luxury, and evil manners should here corrupt the popu- 
lation. In his discussion of the marriage relation, 
Bacon indulges in a bitter satire on the social morals 
of his age. He intimates that in the society of his day 
marriage was but a cloak for immorality ; and that the 
family was only a corrupt bargain, " wherein is sought 



1 86 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

alliance or position or reputation with some desire 
(almost indifferent) of issue." * As in the "City of the 
Sun," the end sought through marriage is to supply a 
strong offspring to the state. Any union threatening 
social welfare is forbidden. 

The "New Atlantis" presents the picture of a perfect 
social state viewed from a scientific standpoint. It is 
the philosophers' state. It is the dream of a philosopher 
who believed that the highest purpose of the state was 
to secure intellectual equality. Bacon's society was 
established, not upon a communism of wealth, but upon 
a communism of knowledge. He conceived of a cul- 
tural state, pure and simple. His highest concept of 
good was of the intellectual type. His communism 
meant the largest possible participation of all the mem- 
bers in the benefits of society. Society should be so 
reconstructed as to grant to all the blessings of general 
culture. 

There is, moreover, a very decided materialistic 
color to the last part of his work. There is found there 
a very remarkable classification of those things which 
minister to the physical wants of man. The teaching of 
Bacon is more Epicurean than is that of Campanella. 
If the writings of Campanella are full of the doctrine 
of high thinking, Bacon's theories have room for the 
praise of good living. His interesting fragment is 

1 "New Atlantis," Morley edition, p. 198. 



THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA 1 87 

rich in practical wisdom; it abounds in suggestions 
touching almost every phase of useful science and 
progressive art. The great purpose, however, of all 
social effort of the "New Atlantis," Bacon sets forth in 
one sentence, showing the spirit and the high purpose 
of the writer. "But thus you see we maintain a trade, 
not for gold, silver, or jewels, not for silks nor for spices, 
nor for any commodity of matter, but only for God's 
first creature, light ; to have light, I say, of the growth of 
all parts of the world." * 

13. This thesis pretends to be an introduction to the 
study of socialism, which comments on certain writers 
who appear as its precursors and pioneers. What im- 
portance, then, has Campanella in these incipient stages ? 
Of him a French critic says : " Campanella, Harrington, 
and Fenelon are the successors of Plato, of the l Repub- 
lic/ of Savonarola, and of Thomas More, and the fore- 
runners of Rousseau, Mably, Fourier, and of Saint- 
Simon." 2 Sigwart calls him the forerunner and 
founder of a system of socialistic thought. 3 Kirchen- 
heim calls him the founder of radical socialism, who saw 

1 Ibid., p. 191. 

2 Franck, " R£formateurs et publicistes, de PEurope," Vol. II, pp. 

3 " Er ist derjenige der zuerst ein vollkommen socialistisches 
System wissenschaftlich begriindet hat, an Geist und Consequenz 
den meisten seiner Nachfolger weit uberlegen." — Sigwart, op. cit., 
p. 151. 



1 88 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

clearly the conflict between the individual and soci- 
ety. 1 

The "City of the Sun" is one of the clearest expres- 
sions of a radical type of social reform and is logical in 
the extremes to which it goes. 2 It is the clearest and 
most rational scheme for a perfect social state thus far 
written. 3 In the scheme of control suggested, Campa- 
nula has embodied most of the ideas of the hierarchy 
of Saint- Simon. Their schemes of organization are 
strikingly similar. 

14. The social teachings of Campanella, then, may 
be briefly described in the first place as reactionary, 
a feature he had in common with Thomas More. 
He shows this attitude on various occasions. He had 
struggled to bring back the power of the Catholic clergy, 
as the Jesuits had done in the counter-reformation. 
The new and interesting feature of his plan was an 
attempt to bring the church up to the new demands 
and to fit it to meet the new economic conditions. This 
Campanella hoped to do by giving it a deeper social 

1 "Mais la pauvrete de Pindividu doit avoir pour resultat la richesse 
de la collectivite, et c'est ainsi que Campanella a ete defendu de 
nos jours par Fourier, Bebel, et d'autres, seulement aucun ne Pa sur- 
passe" en audace." — Kirchenheim, op. cit., p. 99. Cf. Franck, op. 
cit.y Vol. II, p. 7, where he calls Campanella the founder of the sys- 
tem of Saint-Simon. 

2 Sudre, " Histoire du Communisme/' p. 198. 

3 Lafargue, " Die Vorlaufer des neueren Socialismus," p. 492. 



THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA 189 

and economic significance. His was not state — but 
like the Jesuits' scheme — it was church socialism. 
These men saw a very important thing much empha- 
sized to-day, the weight of economic causes; to some 
extent they appreciated the importance of the economic 
basis of society. They saw that attention must be paid 
to industrial and economic conditions, and that these 
form the foundations upon which a solid political 
structure must rest. 1 

The communism of Campanella was not of a gross, 
material kind, so often and doubtless rightly condemned. 
It meant, as Schaffie remarks, more than a mere divi- 
sion of goods. It involved a general and equal partici- 
pation of all in the products of culture and in the results 
of social progress. He taught that all should share 
alike in those social institutions, and that there should 
be social cooperation all along the line. Industries, he 
said, should be open to all, and this at a time when 
labor-castes ruled industrial society and narrow favorit- 
ism was dominant over Europe. All institutions were 
to be entered by those fitted for them by nature or by 
culture. His was a most comprehensive type of com- 
munism, including the communism of women. It was 

1 The same thing was true of the English writers of this time. 
"Alone of all his contemporaries, Harrington understood that the 
causes of the great upheaval which had been witnessed needed to 
be sought in the underlying social and economic transformation." 
— Gooch, op. cit.y p. 292. Cf. Kirchenheim, op. cit., p. 151. 



19O SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

directed toward breaking up the home with its exclu- 
siveness, the classes with their privileges, and absolute 
government with its oppressiveness. 

Campanella advocated certain sane ideas on social 
organization. Some of these are to-day in force ; some 
await fulfilment, others were but dreams. He advo- 
cated free and compulsory education for all classes. 
He advised changes in the school curriculum that 
would bring more practical results. He laid special 
emphasis on the need of care in the propagation of 
offspring. Therefore he abandoned marriage as based 
upon sentiment and provided for the social control of 
the family, whereby fitness and not capricious fancy 
should be the basis of sexual union. The underlying 
principle of his social scheme was that society can 
never be a success till the social will completely domi- 
nates the individual will. Egoism is a mortal foe of 
social welfare and harmony, and hence those institu- 
tions that foster selfishness and egoism, such as property 
and the family, must be sacrificed to the welfare of the 
larger social group. 

Attention has also been called to his theory of the 
devotion to a larger social aggregate. This had been 
a part of the theory of the Papal See since the time of 
Gregory the Great in the eleventh century. The same 
reasoning had led to the system of celibacy among 
the German monks, established in order to free them 



THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA 191 

from the limiting, narrowing influences of home life, 
and to keep them from entangling alliances, dangerous 
to Italian domination. 1 That Campanella drew much 
of his inspiration from this practice and tradition seems 
highly probable. 

In the scheme of Campanella, then, the state invades 
the sphere of individual action and initiative in its 
minutest details. The importance of the individual 
arises from his attachment to the larger group ; and he 
is most useful when he most completely conforms to 
the social will. 

Campanella put forth few views that might be called 
economic. What he says is scattered throughout his 
works and is not of great interest. On the theory of 
distribution he has no clear ideas; indeed, with a 
system of communism, it would seem none is needed. 
As is the situation in connection with all similar 
schemes, however, the problem of distribution still 
perplexes. In fact, the further these writers depart 
from the natural laws governing in the economic world, 
the more difficult does the situation appear. Campa- 

1 On this reference may be made to the general works and to one 
work by Henry C. Lea. On this he says : " By the efforts of Gregory, 
the monk was, in theory at least, separated irrevocably from the 
world and committed to an existence which depended solely upon 
the church. Cut off from family and friends, the door closed behind 
him forever, and his only aspiration beyond his own wants could but 
be for his abbey and church," etc. — Henry C. Lea, "Historical 
Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church," pp. 11 7-1 18. 



192 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

nella taught that the individual should be rewarded by 
society according to his capacity, and the work done 
was the test of capacity. In the last analysis, however, 
the wants of each were determined by society, as none 
could live in luxury and none should be allowed to 
want. In this respect, his theory was very similar to 
that of the later French socialists. 1 

It may be very reasonably asked what all this mys- 
ticism and metaphysical theory contains that is of 
interest to the social student ? Has not Campanella, in 
his way, laid hold of a great fact in social thought and 
interpretation ? He has set forth the fact, hailed as an 
acquisition of the nineteenth century, that social de- 
velopment is only one phase of the general cosmical 
process. Obscured by much confusing symbolism, 
this idea appears in the teachings of Campanella. 
Mingled with much metaphysical and theological ob- 
scurity it is; lacking almost entirely in any clear 
inductive analysis it may be ; yet his work foreshadows 
an attempt at a synthetic treatment of scientific thought. 
Take as an illustration a quotation from a sonnet: 
"The universe is a great and perfect animal, statue 
of God and made in his image." " We are on the earth 
which is a grand animal on a greater one still as the 
vermin on our bodies." 2 

1 Adolphe Franck, " Rgf ormateurs, " etc., Vol. II, p. 194. 

2 Ibid., p. 165. 



THE SOCIALISM OF CAMPANELLA 193 

Campanella may be said to be the only philosopher in 
Italy to whom the liberation of the human mind in the 
sphere of religion and philosophy had an application 
to the conditions in society and the state. To some 
extent, at least, he attempted to apply the new thought 
to the social world. With him the Reformation issued 
in a more or less clear social scheme. As Thomas 
More had given a social direction to the new thought 
in England, so in Italy Campanella was the one man 
to whom a comprehensive scheme of social reform 
suggested itself. 

Other philosophers were engaged in scholastic dis- 
putes; statesmen were struggling for the spoils of 
office; the Calabrian monk alone devoted his energies 
to creating a scheme of social reorganization. Among 
all the Italian states, oppressed by foreign rulers and 
exploited by despotic power, Calabria alone arose in 
revolt and demanded a new social and political organi- 
zation. The soul of this struggle was the Calabrian 
monk — Campanella. 

Judged by ordinary standards, the life and teachings 
of Campanella may seem to mean little to social progress 
and amelioration. Few to-day know him or his work. 
The words of Royce, however, certainly apply to him : 
"Surely no statesman ever founded an enduring social 
order; one may add that no statesman ever produced 
even temporarily the exact social order that he meant to 



194 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

found. No human life ever attained the glorious dreams 
of its youth. But still the saints and sages are not 
failures, even if they are forgotten. There is an endur- 
ing element about them. They did not wholly die." * 
x Royce, " Spirit of Modern Philosophy," p. 6. 



CHAPTER VI 

EIGHTEENTH- CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 

i. Morelly is one of the unknown writers. Of his 
life-history data are extremely rare and on essential 
points the records are of very uncertain value. He was 
born at Vitry-le- Francois at an unknown date. Judg- 
ing from the opening of his literary activity, he was born 
about 1720, thus being a contemporary of Rousseau, 
Voltaire, and the Encyclopaedists. As a mark of his 
obscurity stands the fact that his social theories and 
writings were for a long time attributed to Diderot. 
This was done in the biography of Diderot in " France 
Litt£raire" and also in the "Biographie Universelle. ,, 
Biographers also speak as if there were two writers 
bearing the name Morelly. As a matter of fact there 
was only one, the other similar name being in all 
probability Morelli or Morellet. 1 His leading works 
were published in connection with the Encyclopaedists 
and in this way he came to be associated with Diderot. 
The biography of Morelly is, therefore, very limited, 
and very little is known of his nature or of his works or 

1 Villegardelle, Introduction, "Code de la Nature"; cf. Lichten- 
berger, "Le Socialisme au XVIII C Siecle," p. 106. 

*95 



196 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

views except in so far as they can be culled from his 
writings. 

These place Morelly among the great philosophic 
and political authors of his time in France. Of him 
one writer says: "With the rebirth of socialist ideas 
the work attributed to Diderot, but really from the 
pen of Morelly, took on anew and enlarged importance. 
Modern writers do not hesitate to acknowledge him 
with enthusiasm as a forerunner of their theories." x 
Another states that he ranks higher in analytic and 
constructive power than many of the better-known and 
acknowledged writers before and since. 2 Morelly 
helped to systematize the theories of earlier writers and 
to pave the way for the later and more developed 
socialism in France as advanced by Mably, Owen, and 
Saint-Simon. The importance of such writers as 
Morelly can be readily underestimated. 

As a precursor of the French Revolution and a fore- 
runner of that more systematic and aggressive French 
socialism, he belongs to that quiet, unobtrusive school 
of writers which did so much of the bold, original 
thinking of the prerevolutionary times. He was one 
of those independent spirits who, in obloquy and neg- 
lect, broke with the past, ignored traditions, theo- 
logical and political prejudices, and proceeded to study 
human nature in its original condition. He turned 

1 Lichtenberger, op. cil., p. 105. 2 Villegardelle, op. cit. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 197 

from vacant superficialities and threadbare generalities 
back to first principles. He broke through the dead 
and deadening crust of effete institutions and of anti- 
quated pretensions and got back to man. In his 
method he was highly introspective, and as a prelude to 
his social analysis he undertook a study of the human 
soul. 1 His studies were of that introspective, subjective 
type which Reich says was characteristic of the radical 
thought which led to the French Revolution. 2 

2. Following such writers as Locke and Hobbes in 
his general method, he reached far different conclusions. 
He studied that same primitive character after which 
they all inquired. Other writers, starting out with the 
same general concepts, but varying in their intent and 
purpose, surrounded Morelly ; and their line of thought 
being similar, they undoubtedly influenced him. 
Among this group of radical writers to whose teachings 
must be traced the roots of the French Revolution, the 
most prominent and important was Simon Nicolas 
Henri Linguet. 3 Another writer of this school far less 
brilliant than Linguet and of less importance than 

1 Morelly early published "L'Essai sur le coeur humain, " Paris 

1745- 

2 Reich, " Foundations of Modern Europe," London, 1904, pp. 148, 
149. 

3 On Linguet see Lichtenberger, op. cit., pp. 77-131; also "Le 
Socialisme et la Revolution francaise"; and Jean Cruppi, "Un 
avocat journaliste au i8 mc Siecle, Linguet," Paris, 1895. 



198 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

Morelly was Jean Claude Chappius. Beaurieu should 
also be mentioned in this connection. 1 He was one of 
the ardent advocates of the theory of a state of nature, 
commending its simplicity and its happiness. His 
theories were closely allied to the thought of Rousseau, 
and his work "L'Eleve de la Nature" is much like 
Rousseau's "Emile." 2 Many such obscure writers 
were in touch with the still more obscure Morelly and 
helped to contribute to that mass of radical theorizing 
which did so much to revolutionize eighteenth-century 
France. Names of almost household familiarity are 
also connected with his. Montesquieu and Rousseau, 
Diderot and Condorcet, with men of far more revolu- 
tionary thought, as Helvetius and D'Holbach, were 
all associated with Morelly in that radical school of 
thought. It was such men, working silently and un- 
observed, clothing their thought often in the garb of 
fiction and romance, who did so much to create revo- 
lutionary sentiment and to make a new order possible. 
The writings of Morelly on society appeared in the 
form of fiction to escape the severe censorship of the 
press then prevalent in France. This seems one lead- 
ing reason why serious philosophers resorted so much 
to the form of romance. Under this form were often 

1 These writers have been treated in a very clear manner by 
Andre* Lichtenberger, "Le Socialisme Utopique." Paris, 1898. 

2 Ibid., p. 59. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 1 99 

veiled the most radical attacks on existing institutions ; 
while these writers pointed in the most hopeful manner 
toward a better social structure. True, some works 
were allowed to circulate freely whose purpose was 
perfectly clear; many, however, were condemned and 
burned during the eighteenth century. 1 

In the field of general philosophy Morelly left one 
work of considerable importance, "L'Essai sur Pesprit 
humain, ,, which appeared in 1743. Here he published 
the theories of education and of the development of the 
human intellect which have been attributed to Jacotot. 

In 1745 appeared his work "L'Essai sur le coeur 
humain." This was the beginning of his social studies. 
Dealing with the human passions, it contained some of 
the ideas further elaborated in the extensive system of 
Fourier. Morelly advanced his social theories in two 
very important works. The first, the "Basiliade," 
appeared in 1753 as a poetic piece of heroic fiction, in 
which he lays down his theories in a most general 
manner. 2 His second work is shorter and more definite, 
and bears the title "Code de la Nature"; a very sig- 
nificant title when taken in connection with the "natural 
rights' ' theories of the time, on which his work is 

1 For a list of condemned works see Rocquain, "L'Esprit re"vo- 
lutionaire avant la Revolution, 1 715-1780," Paris, 1878. Here are 
enumerated between five and six hundred works thus condemned. 

2 " Nauf rage des lies flottantes ou Basiliade du ce*lebre Pilpai." 



200 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

based. 1 The "Basiliade" was written from 1751- 
1753. So severely was this criticised that he defended 
his theories in his stronger, more dogmatic work, " Code 
de la Nature." 2 The year in which the "Code" 
appeared saw Rousseau's noted work of a similar 
nature, "Discours sur l'inegalite des conditions," 
while his " Contrat Social" followed almost immediately. 
Three years before the appearance of the work of 
Morelly, Montesquieu had begun his inductive study 
of society and brought a mighty fund of historic knowl- 
edge to bear on social problems, attempting an explana- 
tion of social progress in terms of physical geography 
and material environment. In respect to method, 
Morelly followed Rousseau rather than Montesquieu. 
In his first work Morelly is more deductive and de- 
structive ; in his second, he is more inductive and con- 
structive. Morelly was more constructive than Rous- 
seau ; more radical and less scientific than Montesquieu. 
Certain other works fall into this group partly 
because of similarity as to fundamental principles and 
partly because they approach society from the view point 
of the social reformer. Among these may be men- 
tioned the important work by D'Holbach, "Nature and 

1 Cf . Cliffe Leslie, " Essays in Political and Moral Philosophy," 
Dublin, 1879, pp. 150-151. 

2 " Code de la Nature, ou le veritable esprit de ses lois de tout 
temps, neglige ou meconnu," 1755. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 201 

her Laws." These he considered in their applications 
to man's social happiness. Condorcet in his " Outlines 
of the Progress of the Human Mind" is more historical 
in method and reaches his conclusions by induction. 
Helv£tius in " System of Nature" follows a very ma- 
terialistic type of social interpretation in contrast to the 
then dominant social system based so largely upon 
tradition, authority, and superstition. It was in such 
teaching that the most serious dangers to the sta- 
bility of the old regime arose, whether in the realm of 
religion, politics, or society at large. The " Origins 
of the Human Understanding," by Condillac, bears the 
same general stamp and has the same revolutionary 
tendency in the field of philosophy. A survey of the 
literature of the time reveals the fact that much of it 
contemplates the overthrow of the existing social order 
by denying its philosophic basis and by upsetting faith 
in those traditions and institutions on which the society 
of the ancient regime had rested. 

Of these writers Morelly was the one who saw most 
clearly the need of a new system to replace the old, and 
was the only one who can be called constructive. He 
alone went so far as to outline a new social structure, 
meeting, as he thought, the new needs if the ancient 
society should be overthrown. The others were 
critical, analytic, and destructive ; Morelly laid down a 
definite plan for new social foundations and may be 



202 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

called the first constructive socialist in France. He 
was followed by such builders as Saint-Simon, Fourier, 
Louis Blanc, and Cabet. 1 

One fact that cannot be too much emphasized is the 
very close relationship between the eighteenth-century 
social theories and the general philosophy then dominant. 
It may be said that up to quite recent times social think- 
ing and theorizing were largely incidental and may be 
called a by-product in the laboratory of the philosopher 
or the theologian. 2 It is hence of the utmost importance 
that a glance be taken at the general philosophic scheme 
in which the social element was only one of the factors. 
While this is not the place to speak at any great length 
of the sceptical philosophy which came to dominate 
France during the eighteenth century, some discussion of 
this field, however cursory, is perhaps justified. 

The animus of much of this radical teaching was the 

1 As has been before pointed out, a very general interest was 
awakened in this prerevolutionary literature when this modern 
French school was developing. Evidence of this lies in the fact that 
translations of these works appeared in different languages before 
1850. The " Code" of Morelly was translated into German by Arndt 
in 1846. Morally' s social writings were edited in annotated form by 
Villegardelle in 1841. It is thus evident that this early literature at- 
tracted attention later, and was influential in helping to shape the 
modern socialistic thought. 

2 This process of differentiation is very interesting to note. In 
England economics seems to have branched out from theology; 
in France it has long been classed under the law and has not yet gained 
entire independence » 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 203 

desire to overthrow the existing forms of control; it 
meant an attack upon the absolute monarchy, a protest 
against an absolute church, and a revolt against an 
equally absolute social tradition, law, and custom. 
This thinking, then, had revolution as its purpose, and it 
had revolution as its results. The writings of Rousseau 
may be taken as typical of the attack against the state ; 
Meslier and Voltaire early opened war upon religion 
and the church. D'Holbach, Helv£tius, and Volney 
led the attack in the broad field of general philosophy ; 
while Morelly and Mably represent the most violent 
enemies of economic order. 

In England the writings of Adam Smith present a 
milder form of protest against the old regime, and, while 
not adhering to the purposeful revolutionary group, he 
did more perhaps than any of them to overthrow the 
old and usher in a new system based upon the most ag- 
gressive form of individualism. On the other hand 
there sprang up a very conservative school in France, 
whose writings had a marked effect upon the revolu- 
tionary thought of the time, and whose work it was to 
combat the more radical theories. Physiocracy was a 
great conservative force in French thought. Denying 
to the state the right to control industry, it was a bulwark 
of the ancient customs and institutions; and in such 
writers as Mercier the old order found firm and able 
advocates. 



204 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

It may be said in general that there are two lines of 
philosophic inquiry in the period under discussion; 
social students and metaphysicians alike indulge in both 
types of inquiry. One realm belongs more particularly 
to the metaphysicians, where students inquired into the 
origin and nature of things ; the other set of facts falls 
into the sphere of psychology, and that of a very deduc- 
tive type, dealing with the origin and nature of man. 1 
This period is marked by a most earnest inquiry after 
these essentials. Both fields were being seriously investi- 
gated in France, and both yielded material for the rev- 
olutionary propaganda. The group of materialistic 
philosophers, including Helvetius, Volney, and D'Hol- 
bach, followed one line, hoping to overthrow the then 
dominant system of thought. The other line of thought 
was pursued by Condillac, Condorcet, and Diderot, and 
led more directly to a revolutionary, social, and political 
philosophy. The radical social teaching of that time 
and of the later decades is based on certain of these 
general philosophic concepts. Certain of these ideas of 
the prerevolutionary writers have a close connection 

1 " II f aut distinguer deux sortes de metaphysique. L'une am- 
bitieuse veut percer tous les mysteres: la nature, Pessence d'etres, les 
causes; Pautre plus retenue, proportionne ses recherches a la fai- 
blesse de Pesprit humain," etc. — Condillac, "Essai sur Porigine des 
connoissances humaines ; ouvrage ou Pon reduit a un seul principe 
tout ce qui concerne Pentendement humain/' Amsterdam, 1746, 
Vol. 1, p. 2. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 205 

with the philosophic principles of later socialism and 
merit brief notice here. 

3. It has come to be very much the mode to connect a 
materialistic view of life with the teachings of socialism. 
This charge rests not merely upon the fact that social- 
ism in its efforts toward social betterment has the material 
welfare of the social classes uppermost in thought, but 
it also has reference to the philosophic foundations of 
socialism. It is probable that the statement viewed in 
either way has much truth in it. 

No claim is here made that the materialism of D 'Hol- 
bach, Helvetius, and the like is the same as that of Weit- 
ling, Hegel, or Karl Marx. It is well known that they 
differ widely, perhaps fundamentally. The attempt is not 
made here to trace the changes this thought underwent 
from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century. What 
can be said with perfect truth, however, is that the 
radical social theories of the eighteenth century root 
themselves in the materialistic thought of that age as the 
more modern socialistic teachings find their philosophic 
basis in the materialism of the nineteenth century, 
modified though this latter may be. 1 The close relation- 
ship of this early teaching Karl Marx himself set forth. 2 

1 Engels, "Socialism, Utopian and Scientific," London, 1892, 
pp. 38 et seq.; Seligman, "The Economic Interpretation of History," 
N. Y., 1902, Chs. 2 and 3. 

2 " Genau und im prosaischen Sinne zu reden, war die franzdsische 
Aufklarung des 18 Jahrhunderts nicht nur ein Kampf gegen die 



206 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

"Yet even here Marx shows the essentially mechan- 
ical nature of the older French materialism and 
points out how the philosophic materialism of Helvetius 
and D'Holbach led to the socialism of Babeuf and 
Fourier." * Around this point considerable discussion 
has taken place. One thing, however, is sure, that the 
social theory of the earlier period sprang from the soil 
of materialism, — not a historical materialism, but a 
type that made man a part of the material universe, 
governed solely and unalterably by her laws, sharing the 
general natural process and limited by the physical 
constitution of things. The social and political revo- 
lutions in France and in Germany offered the same 
violent opposition to the orthodox teachings in science, 
in the state, and in the church. 2 It was this form of 
materialism that constituted the philosophical en- 
vironment of Morelly and his associates. Certain of 
these writings were very influential in helping to over- 
throw the old conditions and to lay the foundations of 
much later radical thinking. 3 

bestehende Religion und Theologie, sondern ein ausgesprochener 
Kampf gegen die Metaphysik des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts und 
gegen alle Metaphysik." — "Die Heilige Familie," p. 196. 

1 Seligman, op. cit., pp. 29-30. 

2 Engels, " Ludwig Feuerbach und der Ausgang der klassischen 
deutschen Philosophic mit anhang : Karl Marx uber Feuerbach vom 
Jahre 1845," Stuttgart, 1895, p. 5. 

3 " Fourrier geht von der Lehre der franzosischen Materialisten aus. 
Die Babouvisten waren rohe, uncivilisirte Materialisten, aber auch 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 207 

4. Perhaps the clearest statement of these theories 
comes from the pen of D'Holbach. He puts the case 
baldly as follows : "In short, morals and politics will be 
equally enabled to draw from materialism advantages 
which the dogma of spirituality can never supply, of 
which it even precludes the idea. Man will ever re- 
main a mystery to those who obstinately persist in 
viewing him with eyes prepossessed by metaphysics, he 
will always be an enigma to those who shall pertina- 
ciously attribute his actions to a principle of which it 
is impossible to form to themselves any distinct idea." * 
One such quotation shows, long before Marx or Buckle, 
a studied intention to give a very decided materialistic 
direction to social interpretation. He further says: 
"If the intellectual faculties of man or his moral quali- 
ties be examined, according to the principles here laid 
down, the conviction must be complete that they are to 
be attributed to material causes." 2 

Of a more marked type is the materialism as taught 
by Helvetius. He advances in the boldest form the 

der entwickelte Communismus datirt direkt von dem franzosischen 
Materialismus. Dieser wandert namlich in der Gestalt die ihm Helve- 
tius gegeben hat nach seinem Mutterlande, nach England zuriick. 
Bentham griindet auf die Moral des Helvetius sein System des 
wohlverstandnen Interesses, wie Owen, von dem System Bentham 
ausgehend, den Englischen Communismus begriindet." — Marx, 
"Die Heilige Familie," p. 207. 

1 D'Holbach, " Nature and her Laws, as applicable to the hap- 
piness of man living in society," London, 1816, Vol. I, p. 211. 

2 Op. cit. } Vol. I, p. 215. 



208 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

theory of the domination of the material forces and 
their close control over man's actions, considered in- 
dividually and socially. He denies all supernatural 
causes and emphasizes only the real, the tangible. 
" Man is the work of nature and subject to her laws 
from which he cannot free himself, nor even exceed in 
thought.'' * He denied any distinction between man as 
a moral and as a physical being. Man is controlled by 
necessity ; but this is physical and not moral necessity. 
Outside the realm of physical necessity there is no 
control. 2 There is, therefore, in the teaching of Helv£- 
tius, no room for crime nor its punishment. Man is not 
responsible to society, ruled as he is by nature whose 
laws are absolute over him. Society, being merely a 
group of separate individuals, is likewise subject to the 
absolute laws of nature. The ends of society are those 
proposed by nature, and these alone man is obliged to 
carry out. The end of life, both social and individual, is 
happiness. "The final end of man is self-preservation 
and rendering existence happy. . . . The spring of 
all action in man are corporeal pains and pleasures." 3 
Nowhere is the pain-and-pleasure philosophy stated 

1 " True Meaning of System of Nature," translated from the French, 
London, 1820, Ch. I. 

2 Ibid., Ch. VI. 

3 "System of Nature," Ch. IX; also, "Treatise on Man, his in- 
tellectual faculties and his education," translated from the French, 
London, 1810, Ch. X. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 209 

more unreservedly. " Corporeal pleasure and pain are 
the real and only springs of all government." 

The ends of society and law should be to control the 
members so that social good will follow; but the final 
test will be the happiness of the individual. "It is by 
promoting the happiness of other men that we engage 
them to promote our own." So that while much of our 
activity seems socially directed, it rests finally upon 
selfishness, and the facts which determine social action 
are tested by the pleasure and pain of the individual. 
Evil is necessary in man, that he may know the good ; 
and man at first did evil that he might add to his happi- 
ness. The end of government and society is found in 
immediate benefit to the individual; and these are 
measured in terms of pleasure and pain. Man's 
actions and choice, while governed by necessity, are still 
a result of his reason. There is, therefore, a rational 
element in human action. The final test of all action is 
nature, tempered by reason. 

Helv£tius already perceives the effect of physical 
environment in giving rise to the differences of peoples. 
The moist, soggy air of England makes a people of 
duller wits and of much less vivacity than in Spain, 
where a bright dry air has had its effect upon individual 
and national character. 1 Such was the thought of one 
of the most influential of the contemporaries of Morelly, 

1 "Treatise on Man," English translation, 1810, p. 161. 
P 



210 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

on the nature of man and of things. It illustrates what 
has been pointed out as the great revolutionary tendency 
of the time to break with the past, to abandon authority 
and tradition and return to a study of man in his primi- 
tive qualities. 

In the writings of such psychologists as Condillac * 
and Condorcet 2 appear the same tendencies toward 
the materialistic teaching. The writings of De Maistre 
are of less importance in this regard. They are largely 
theological in tone and deal only slightly with the 
materialistic or revolutionary aspects of the case. 3 

These ideas which enter so largely into the revo- 
lutionary thought of the early period appear in the 
socialistic writings after the Revolution. The tendency 
to found a social science upon a basis of materialism; 
to explain social phenomena in terms of material 
science ; and to discover the lines of physical, moral, and 
social causation in the same sphere, — this tendency 
marks the writings of Saint-Simon, August Comte, 
and other Frenchmen. Of this Ferraz says: "The 
physicism of Saint- Simon and the positivism of Comte 
are in close accord with the materialism of D'Holbach 
and of Lamettrie, and the doctrine of the ' attraction 

1 " Essai sur Porigine des connoissances humaines." 1746. 

2 " Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progres de Pesprit humain, 
suivie de reflexions sur Pesclavage des negres." Paris, 1822. 

3 Ferraz, " Socialisme, Naturalisme et Positivisme," Paris, 1882, 
p. xvi; Flint, "History of the Philosophy of History," N. Y., 1894, p. 342. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 211 

passioned is based upon the philosophy of Hel- 
vetius. In many ways the present socialism rests 
upon the sensualism of the eighteenth century." ! 

There is a more restricted sense in which the writings 
and actions of this age may be called materialistic. 
This period was marked by the growth of the desire 
for material welfare. It is now coming to be more 
fully appreciated that the French Revolution was caused 
as well by bad harvests and empty stomachs as by 
radical philosophy and revolutionary teaching. 2 In 
the literature here cited the test of happiness is largely 
a material one. Helvetius said the stomach and sexual 
passion were the main motives leading men to action. 
The age was marked by that type of individual philoso- 
phy, wherein the welfare, i.e. the pleasure and pain of the 
individual, was the final test of the good or evil in the 
social structure. The pleasure-and-pain philosophy 
has this as its corollary, that individualism and the 
demand for material welfare go hand in hand. 3 

5. Growing logically out of the foregoing material- 
istic view is another feature peculiar in some of its 
aspects to the age of Morelly; i.e. the emphasis laid 
upon the metaphysical concepts of the "law of nature," 
of "natural rights," and their corollaries. 

1 " Socialisme, Naturalisme et Positivisme," p. xv. 

3 Cf . Lichtenberger, " Le Socialisme et la Revolution francaise." 

8 Held," Zwei Bucher zur socialen Geschichte Englands," 1881, p. 85. 



212 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

It is almost a commonplace to speak of the natural 
rights theory as being dominant at this time in France. 
All through the literature of that period are scattered 
the phrases, "state of nature,' ' " natural rights," "man 
of nature/' "natural law." These phrases came most 
freely from the pens of social, political, and psycho- 
logical writers of the time. The tendency then domi- 
nant was to study man himself, independent of environ- 
ment, of culture, of civilization itself, and of all the effects 
and influences of the centuries of historical evolu- 
tion. 

The period of Morelly was thoroughly dominated by 
this state of nature philosophy. These natural rights 
were presumed to be the natural and inalienable heritage 
of every person born into society. Even though born 
into conventional society, he came as heir to these 
rights. 

The general theory of a state of nature and of the 
laws supposed to govern there are too familiar to require 
extensive reference. These doctrines were made particu- 
larly prominent in the writings of Rousseau, especially 
in his "Contrat Social." They appear in a more 
abstract and scientific form in the philosophical works 
of that radical group already discussed, including 
Helv£tius, D'Holbach, Condorcet, and others ; while it 
is the accepted premise of such socialist writers as 
Mably, Morelly, Boissel, and Babeuf. This same 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 213 

theory was taken up by the early American radicals 
and appropriated to their revolutionary purposes. 

The conception of man in a state of nature, accepted 
by the early French socialists, was much different 
from that advanced by Hobbes. The " man of nature," 
discussed by the French writers, is pictured as living 
in a state of peace, happiness, and undisturbed equality. 
The natural man, as set forth by Hobbes, was in a state 
of constant warfare, where groups struggled in con- 
ditions of anarchy till fear and despair drove them to 
organize society and to submit to government. Not 
that they freely sought conventional society or yielded 
gladly to the sovereign will of such society so organized 
as to express its will through the organs of the state, 
but that they betook themselves to these as a refuge 
from worse things. 

The French theory corresponds more nearly with 
that of Locke. These writers hold that men enter into 
society and establish and submit to a government, not 
so much to avoid a state of war, as to gain larger bene- 
fits through association and to reach positive ends not 
attainable through individual effort. 1 This idea of 
nature and man's place in it forms one of the main 
premises in the socialistic thought of the age of 
Morelly. 

While this doctrine is not confined in its influence to 

1 Cf. Helv&ius, "True Meaning of the System of Nature," p. 24. 



214 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

the prerevolutionary period, and did not find its 
origin there, it is given a peculiar conciseness and a 
greater emphasis in these radical works. The most 
unreserved statement of the theory is found in the 
"System of Nature," where Helvetius clearly states 
the relation of man to nature and her laws. Of man's 
place in nature he says: "Man is a physical being, 
subject to nature, and hence to necessity. . . . The 
necessity that governs the physical governs the moral 
world, where everything is also subject to the same 
law. . . . Notwithstanding the system of human liberty, 
men have universally founded their systems upon neces- 
sity alone." * His conception of man is not, however, 
lowered because of his subjection to natural law; 
human actions in society are not then made more 
servile or less noble because of this control. Man 
and society both conform to this higher law of nature. 
Man loses nothing in self-respect, in feelings of re- 
sponsibility, nor in his desire for virtue, as a result. 
Punishment would cease as a social function and 
would follow through the execution of the law of na- 
ture. Vice and disorder would decrease. Thus does 
Helvetius restate the old theory of man's relation 
to nature. 

In various forms this theory is found in the radical 
literature down to the Revolution. Adam Smith 

1 "True Meaning of the System of Nature," pp. 16-17. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 21 5 

accepts it. 1 Condorcet enlarges on it. 2 Turgot clearly 
expresses his acceptance of this doctrine, which must be 
viewed as one of the premises of the social theories in the 
age of Morelly. 3 This idea of a state of nature and its 
corollaries form as important a tenet in the argument of 
the radical social thinkers as it did with the political 
doctrinaires. It gave ground for the fundamental 
principle, as important to one set of revolutionists as to 
the other, that men are born free and equal ; a notion 
with as great consequences for the social order as it had 
for the permanence of the existing political regime. 
" Almost all the ancient philosophers and politicians 
laid it down as a principle that men are born unequal ; 
that nature has created some to be free, others to be 
slaves." 4 The eighteenth-century theory as to man's 
equality repudiates the doctrine first advanced by 
Aristotle, and taught that all men are by nature free and 
equal. Carried out in the realm of politics this makes 
for democracy ; in the realm of industry and economics 
it would mean socialism. 

6. A very natural corollary to this type of thinking 
was an almost total disregard for history. Writers of 
this class were decidedly unhistorical in their method of 

1 Hasbach, " Untersuchungen liber Adam Smith und die Entwick- 
lung der politischen Oekonomie," pp. 322 et seq., Leipzig, 1891. 

2 "Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progres de Pesprit 
humain," pp. 91 et seq. 

3 Leon Say, " Turgot, " pp. 43-44. 

4 Volney, "The Ruins," English ed., 1881, p. 144. 



2l6 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

social analysis. They studied man as a creature aside 
from his historical development and separated from 
historical environment. To them man was marked 
by unchanging qualities, and history had little of impor- 
tance to teach concerning him or his social possibilities. 
Against the idea that man is an historical product 
stood the theory of revolution that history had perverted 
man's best faculties, while his truly social qualities 
were those that were native, inherent, and hence in- 
dependent of historical development. 1 Human nature 
remaining always essentially the same, mankind should 
be organized in such manner as would best fit this type, 
reached purely by a priori reasoning. The French 
Revolution was a movement to which, then, history was 
to bring little or no aid. The attitude of the radical 
school was well stated in the aphorism of the French 
statesman, who said he could learn nothing from 
history. 

There had as yet been very little knowledge, of a 
trustworthy kind, of those conditions of life which they 
pretended to describe. The treatment of primitive 
society as found in Cantillon, whereby he attempted 
to reach social origins, is a good illustration of the 
early research, well characterized by James Stewart as 
' ' conjectural history. ' ' Eighteenth-century social study, 
very deductive in its nature, had little use for history. 

1 Dunning, " History of Political Theory," Vol. I, p. 293. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 2\J 

It dealt with the pleasing fiction of this happy state of 
nature and this man of nature, "a natural, permanent, 
universal thing' ' ; and here there could be no changing 
history. Only the changeful, fleeting, artificial, could 
pass through those cycles which make history possible. 
These writers viewed things with the eye of a meta- 
physician, which sees things in a static state where 
history is not made. 1 The theories here discussed deal 
with man and not with men ; and man, thus conceived 
of, has no history. These theories deal with an ab- 
stract man. From Adam Smith to Kant, from Rous- 
seau to Mably, the treatises present this interesting 
abstraction. What Barres says of Kant was equally 
true of these radicals, "He addresses himself to an 
abstract and ideal person always and everywhere the 
same ; whereas the real man, the only man we have to 
live with, varies according to time, place, and race." 2 
The social philosophers also dealt with a type of man 
that was not supposed to vary. He is the natural 
person, and as they have stripped him of all the effects of 
the past and taken him " shivering naked from the hand 
of nature," the task of rebuilding society from top to 
bottom need not be so difficult. 

From a practical as well as from a philosophic cause 
these reformers must deny the value of history and 

1 See Engels, op. cit., p. 31. 

a Le Bon, "The Psychology of Socialism, " N. Y., 1899, p. 72. 



2l8 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

attempt to destroy its results. Of this Nitti remarks: 
"This was one of the hardest problems the world had 
yet met. The question seemed to be, how to make it 
possible for the masses to partake in the benefits of a 
society, where the society itself rested chiefly on aris- 
tocracy, and the traditional institutions could be safe 
only when resting on such a basis. In such a case it 
seemed natural that much of the validity of past develop- 
ment must be denied, in that it shut the masses from its 
enjoyment ; one of those historical institutions vigorously 
attacked was property." * Thus the coming either of 
socialism or of democracy demanded the rejection of the 
ancient structure and the reduction of society to its 
primitive elements, in order to clear the ground and 
allow the population to flow freely from the old into the 
new social and political mould. This fact made the 
position of the radical reformers logical in rejecting 
history and its results and rendered the destructiveness 
of the French Revolution necessary. 

It is quite evident that the type of socialism here 
treated must largely ignore historical considerations. 
The methods of reform suggested by the Utopian 
socialists make historical evolution particularly un- 
necessary. They did not look for slow growth and 
change. They did not expect to pave the way by 
moderate measure. Socialism was conceived of as a 

1 Nitti, "Le Socialisme Catholique," p. 4. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 219 

finished state and not as a process ; an end and not a 
means. Their view was revolutionary and not evolu- 
tionary. With the simple primitive man as a unit these 
social dreamers hoped to construct de novo an ideal 
society. 

This meant that no idea of social evolution entered 
their thoughts. Their ''man'' was to have only 
" tendencies/ ' and these they conceived of as " social or 
benevolent tendencies" alone. They thought of human 
nature as a tabula rasa. The theory of innate ideas 
was rejected. Morelly assumed a "man of nature." 
Rousseau accepted the primitive-man theory as ad- 
vanced by Mrs. Behn and made a "Bon Sauvage" the 
hopeful unit for his social and political reconstruction. 
The natural man, discussed by Godwin, was one to 
whom all historical development meant nothing. 
Man was not to grow out of the past — indeed, was to 
have no vital connection with it. To Morelly the 
effects of past progress were especially pernicious. 
The whole attitude of eighteenth-century socialism was 
antagonistic to history and inappreciative of historical 
progress. 1 

As has been indicated, this attitude toward history is 
one of the leading distinctions between Utopian and 

1 "Historical man is always human society and the presumption 
of a presocial or supersocial man is a creature of imagination." 
— Labriola, "Socialism and Philosophy," p. 43. 



220 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

scientific socialism. Rodbertus and Marx were both 
devoted to the historical method. Marx based his 
whole system on a study of the historical evolution 
of industrial society. Of Rodbertus, Gonner says: 
"If we distinguish social writers into those who employ 
abstract and those who employ historical analysis 
as a means of investigation, Rodbertus must certainly 
be placed among the latter. History furnishes him with 
the foundation on which he builds." x 

From the standpoint of these reformers the age was 
specially fitted to suggest such an attitude toward 
history. Conditions of political despotism, religious 
dogmatism, and social and industrial misery and wrong, 
were productive of the spirit of radical innovation and led 
to an abandonment of history the most complete. The 
results of historical development, as seen in eigh- 
teenth-century France, argued little for history as a 
guide or for its products as the basis of a regenerated 
society. Within the pale of that civilization which 
seemed the highest fruits of history, the critics saw 
little of inspiration or of promise. Refuge was there- 
fore sought in the vague, metaphysical region of a 
"state of nature." Here was found the promising idea 
of a man of nature, living in a simple state, enjoying 
certain primitive rights, at least free from conventional 
wrongs and endowed with "natural goodness" and with 

1 "The Social Philosophy of Rodbertus," p. 33. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 221 

the capacity of "perfectibility"; most happy con- 
ditions for the reformer as a basis for an ideal social 
state. 

Such was the Utopian dream of the eighteenth-cen- 
tury metaphysician in the realm of social reform. It 
corresponds to the idea entertained by the classical 
economists when they proceeded in theory to do wonders 
with the myth of the "economic man" in the sphere of 
"free competition." Very similar was the use made of 
the two concepts. This man of nature was free from 
the restraints and limitations of an artificial kind, 
which had grown up with progress. Against the morals 
of tradition and authority were set the morals of nature. 
Against the doctrine of the inherent evil of human 
nature was placed the dogma of man's native goodness. 
Opposed to the hampering regulations of the old order 
was the liberty of the new age of reason ; the rational 
judgment opposed to the historic judgment. Much 
in the same manner had the classical economics fallen 
back to the law of nature in the industrial world, and on 
that basis had combated the traditional theories and had 
opposed the remaining limitations of the old system of 
mercantilism. 

There is, however, another principle involved in these 
theories, closely related to the foregoing. The under- 
lying idea in this teaching was the possibility of an 
artificial social structure. It ignores the fact that 



222 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

society is an organism and, growing under the operation 
of natural economic laws, is dynamic and not static; 
that it is not the product of closet philosophers, but 
develops in a slow and continuing process. The idea 
accepted by later socialism of the Marxian type, is that 
society evolves into new if not into higher forms, fol- 
lowing its own inherent laws and beyond the control of 
the members of society, exerted individually or col- 
lectively — an idea which ill comports with the philo- 
sophic society-builders of any age. 

The teachings, then, of this earlier socialism lack the 
evolutionary notion, and hence the idea of progress, as 
now conceived. In fact, before the more recent times, 
when the study of physical science has given a scientific 
bent to social study, there was very little to suggest 
progress. Jowett says: "Passing from speculation to 
facts we observe that progress has been the exception 
rather than the rule in human history. And therefore 
we are not surprised that the idea of progress is of a 
modern rather than of an ancient date; and like the 
idea of a philosophy of history is not more than a century 
old. It seems to have arisen from the impressions left 
in the human mind by the growth of the Roman Empire 
and of the Christian Church, and to be due to the local 
and political improvements they introduced into the 
world ; and still more in our own century to the idealism 
of the French Revolution and to the triumph of the 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 223 

American Revolution; and in a greater degree to the 
material prosperity and growth of population in England 
and America. " ! This difference in attitude of the 
French radicals marks the chief distinction between 
the English and French Revolutions. 

A brief study of the documents of the English Revo- 
lution serves to show that the demands there made are 
for historic rights; they fall back to the past and 
demand their ancient liberties secured for centuries by 
the constitutions and laws of England. As compared 
with the French Revolution it was superficial in nature. 
The English radicals did not go back of the political 
structure. They did not, with few exceptions, attack 
society. They accepted the social fabric as a product 
of historical development and were satisfied to re- 
construct a new political organization. 2 Property, 
the laws of its holding and distribution, the family and 
the existing industrial order — all these were left 
intact. 

In France, however, the whole movement was differ- 
ent. Not political but social in its nature, it went 
deeper. The demand in France was not for historical 
but for natural rights. The metaphysician and philoso- 
pher and not the legalist or historian laid the basis of 

1 Introduction to " Republic" of Plato, p. ccxiii. 

2 Cf . Gooch, " History of English Democratic Ideas in the Seven- 
teenth Century," Cambridge, 1898, Ch. IV. 



224 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

the French revolutionary struggle. They did not hope 
for relief through a return to ancient liberties nor 
historic rights; they looked for a totally new social 
reconstruction. The French wished to fall back of 
organized society and sweep away its fabric till nothing 
but the individual remained. From this they would 
reconstruct society. In this lay the dangerous feature 
of the early French thought. Here is seen its kinship 
with socialism. It worked toward a great social 
movement deep enough to disturb the social founda- 
tions. 

The radicals in France attacked the underlying 
economic and industrial order and created new social 
classes and destroyed old ones; this necessarily upset 
the equilibrium in society and made the Revolution 
necessary. 1 From the writings of Rousseau, Morelly, 
Mably, and the like down to the laws of the Assembly 
of 1793 may be seen in theory and in practice this far- 
reaching attack on the traditional institutions and on 
the historic order. As Professor Reich says: "The 
changes in France were tabula rasa. It was a Revo- 
lution totally unlike the great revolutions of the Dutch 
in 1565-1569, of the English 1642-1660, or of the Ameri- 
can from 1 775-1 783. In no one of these three revolu- 
tions were the social, i.e. the deeper, elements of the 

1 Cf . Barnave, " Introduction a la Revolution f rancaise," edited 
by Berenger, London, 1843, p. 20. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 225 

nation touched upon; all three referred to political 
issues, leaving the rest of the nation's organization un- 
touched. " * In France it was intended that society as 
well as government should receive a new constitution. 
Back of the radical revolutionary action was this 
thoroughgoing revolutionary thought, part of which 
has been called socialistic. 

It may then be conceded in that so far as socialism 
has to do with the abstract and unchanging principles 
of social justice, and with the supposed immutable 
laws of right, it would not lead to an historical study of 
society. This much can be said, that the study of 
social history and the rise of the evolutionary doctrines, 
as accepted either by Hegel or Darwin, must be fatal to 
the earlier idealistic type of socialism. It is also true 
that modern state and scientific socialism has been 
very closely allied to the historical school of economics. 2 

Just what the effect of the study of history and the 
acceptance of the doctrines of evolution have had on 
socialism in theory it is difficult to say. Karl Marx, 
after a most profound study of industrial history, and 
accepting the Hegelian theory of evolution, abandoned 
the radical type of socialism and founded scientific 
socialism. It was in the light of the evolutionary 
doctrine that Herbert Spencer wrote his most telling 

1 "Foundations of Modern Europe," pp. 118-119. 

2 Rambaud, " Historie d'Economie Politique," Paris, 1900, p. 326. 

Q 



226 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

defence of the individual in his "Man versus the 
State." In the congress of scientists in Berlin in 1877 
the famous discussion between Virchow and Haeckel 
involved the wisdom of socialism viewed in the light 
of the evolutionary theory of Darwin. The results 
seemed to show that a strict adherence to the evolution- 
ary doctrine would exclude socialism. 

The great scholar Savigny, who first applied the 
historic method to the study of law, was very doubtful 
of the success of extensive social control. On the 
fluctuating nature of law he says, "Accordingly 
legislation itself and jurisprudence as well are of a 
wholly accidental and fluctuating nature and it is very 
possible that the law of to-day may not be the law of to- 
morrow." * After this statement of the nature of law 
he says, "The conviction that there is a practical law of 
nature or of reason, an ideal legislation for all times and 
all circumstances, which we have only to discover to 
bring positive law to perfection, often served only to 
reconcile the views as to the civil code and growing 
law." Here he examines the origins of legislation to 
test this idea. The general drift of his discussion as to 
the possibility of establishing permanent relationships 
through positive law is unfavorable. As to the effect 
of his study upon his ideas of social control Ihering 

1 " Of the Vocation of our Age for Legislation and Jurisprudence," 
London, 1831, p. 23. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 227 

says/ "It feeds him with the hope that things will 
take care of themselves and that the best he can do is 
to fold his arms and confidently wait for what may 
gradually spring to light from that primitive source of all 
law so-called, — the natural conviction of legal right. 
Hence his aversion, and all his disciples, for the inter- 
ference of legislation." 

7. Another feature of the social philosophy of 
Morelly was his unbounded optimism. Pessimism as 
to conditions, optimism as to possibilities, sums up in 
a phrase the creed of early socialism. Of this period of 
expectation a French critic says: "It has inspired the 
political philosophy of the eighteenth and nineteenth 
centuries. It produced after the Revolution the 
theories of the socialist schools while it has done much 
to nourish contemporaneous socialism. " 2 Nitti de- 
scribes it as follows, " Toward the close of the last 
century there spread over the whole of Europe from 
France, not only the theories that proclaimed the new 
social faith, but also, and not less extensively, the most 
absolute trust in the goodness of natural laws and in 
human perfection and perfectibility." 3 

Here, then, is the basis of that optimism which marks 
the eighteenth- century thought: unbounded faith in 

1 "The Struggle for Law," translated from German, Chicago, 1879, 
p. 14. 

2 Renouvier, " Schopenhauer et le Pessimisme," p. 5. 

3 Nitti, op. cit. y p. 10. 



228 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

the beneficent control of the natural laws ; in the doc- 
trine of human goodness; in the idea of progress and 
the possibility of a social solidarity — all these factors 
figure in that sentiment of hopefulness which character- 
ized the decades preceding the French Revolution. 

All types of writing are colored by it; works on 
commerce and economics, on law and politics, on 
psychology and metaphysics. Psychology, dealing with 
man's inherent qualities, reached the conclusion that he 
was not bad, but innately good. The economic writers 
saw the disappearance of the Age of Mercantilism, with 
its wars and strife, and prophesied the new era of 
peace, when trade should be untrammelled and industry 
go on unhindered to better days. The great philoso- 
pher, Kant, expressed his faith in new-born democracy 
in his happy dream, "Zum ewigen Frieden," 1 telling 
how the new system would banish war. Until the 
Revolution these hopes kept bright. Hopes in political 
reform and social regeneration; hopes in economic 
prosperity, when there should be universal freedom 
in commercial relations ; hopes in the liberation of the 
human mind from thraldom, and in a higher morality 
based on reason as the highest expression of nature's 
laws — some such hopes mark the closing decades of 
the eighteenth century. 

This optimism of which Morelly and his associates 

1 Kant, "Zum ewigen Frieden," 1804. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 229 

partake rests rather upon metaphysical reasoning than 
upon theological dogmatizing. During the eighteenth 
century, owing largely to the attacks made upon theology 
by Meslier and Voltaire, and to the rise of the school of 
mathematics under Leibnitz, and the school of psy- 
chology under Condorcet, the theological type of opti- 
mism gives way to the metaphysical, and the schools 
of socialism, politics, and economics accept, in a little 
different form, the belief in the final good issue of all 
things. 1 It may be said that the idea of the benevolent 
will of a Supreme Being has been replaced by the con- 
cept of the laws of nature, which were also thought of as 
benevolent. This is true for illustration of the physio- 
crats of whom Ritchie says, "The theory of the physio- 
crats, that man ought to study natural law and not 
disturb its actions, assumes that nature is operating in 
a way that is beneficial to man." 2 The same may be 
said of the teachings of Adam Smith. "The law of 
nature becomes with him an article of religious faith; 
the principles of human nature, in accordance with the 
nature of their Divine Author, necessarily tend to the 
most beneficial employments of man's faculties and 



1 Renouvier, op. cit. t p. 45 ; Bonar, " Philosophy and Political 
Economy," pp. 99 et seq. 

2 Ritchie, " Natural Rights," a criticism of some political and eth- 
ical conceptions, London, 1895, p. 45. 

8 Cliffe Leslie, op. cit. y p. 153. 



230 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

Naturally connected with this was the additional idea 
that, under this general law, the public and individual 
interests could be reconciled. The theory that the 
social and individual ends and purposes may, if properly 
adjusted, be made to coincide, is a necessary postulate 
of all socialist doctrine ; else it must mean the destruc- 
tion of individual liberty or a lessening of social welfare. 
The age here under discussion saw the rise of this 
happy sentiment. It became an axiom of the science 
with many economists and with English statesmen, that, 
by a natural law, the private interests harmonize with 
the interests of the public. This proposition under- 
lies the social and economic theories of the classical 
economists; it is the hope of the radical social re- 
formers in France, and a main tenet of the physio- 
crats. Of the attitude of Adam Smith on this 
question Professor Veblen says, "Both in the 'The- 
ory of Moral Sentiments' and in his 'Wealth of 
Nations' there are many passages that testify to his 
abiding conviction that there is a wholesome trend in 
the natural course of things, and the characteristically 
optimistic tone in which he speaks for natural liberty 
is but an expression of this conviction." 1 

Ample illustrations of this attitude may be found in all 
the literature of the time. Hume says, "The interests 

1 "Journal of Political Economy," Vol. XIII, p. 396. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 23 1 

of others are, on the whole, in the case of nearly every 
man, stronger than even his own self-interest." ! Hutch- 
eson, in his " System of Moral Philosophy,' ' discusses 
at length the innate principles of benevolence. 2 Burke, 
in his " Sublime and Beautiful," distinguishes two 
fundamental lines of action, those of self-preservation 
and social interest. 3 Adam Ferguson sees the natural 
condition of social union coming from a very high and 
altruistic origin. 4 

Volney, in his too little read classic, "Les Ruines," 
sets forth the same happy theory of the possible har- 
mony between the general and particular interests. 
He teaches that these interests are not naturally in 
conflict. If society were properly organized, harmony 
and not discord would result. Not only this, he taught 
the notion of a larger possible union of interests that 
underlay the cosmopolitan economics of the classical 
school. Society at large, having passed through the 
same stages that particular societies have done, promises 
the same close union on a larger scale. "At first 
separated in its parts each individual stood alone, and 
this intellectual solitude constituted its childhood.'' 5 
In this more perfect society "individuals will feel that 
private happiness is allied to the happiness of society." 8 

1 "Works," Vol. Ill, p. 54. 2 Published in 1748. 3 1756. 

4 "Essay on the History of Civil Society," Boston, 1809, pp. 1-3. 
'Volney, "Les Ruines," p. 48. c Ibid., p. 47. 



232 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

In this theory the social and individual welfare were not 
incompatible. 1 

8. It has always been argued that the possibilities of 
socialism and its practical success are conditioned on 
the nature of man himself. The phrase has grown old 
in service that water can rise no higher than its source 
and that society, regardless of its structure, can be no 
better than the units which compose it. Like all 
epigrams this one is dangerous and may easily be 
untrue. However, the faith in schemes of social reform 
will be determined largely by the theories held con- 
cerning man's nature and possibilities. In this regard 
a study of the beliefs of this period is enlightening. 

One of the underlying ideas in the schemes of reform 
of the last half of the eighteenth century was the theory 
of the native goodness of man. The schemes of 
ideal societies and model commonwealths and Utopian 
states were justified by the dogma of primitive good- 
ness. Man, taken as the unit of society, must be per- 
fect, or at least perfectible. In that state of nature 
where men were happy there must be lacking those 
evils which curse conventional society. The propo- 

1 Cf . Roscher, "Principles of Political Economy," English trans- 
lation, p. 79; Boisguilbert, "Factum de la France," Daire edition, 
Ch. 10; J. B. Say, "Traite d'Economie," p. 15; Bentham, "Trea- 
tise," Vol. I, p. 229. 

In poetry, cf. Werner, "Passing Century"; cf. Coar, "Studies in 
German Literature," p. 9. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 233 

sitions accepted by the radical thinkers were, that man 
in a state of nature was benevolent and with proper 
social environment might be kept so. The discussion 
took shape in the denial of the theory of innate 
ideas, the acceptance of the doctrine of primitive good- 
ness, and the environment theory of evil. 

One of the clearest features in the works of this kind 
was the denial of the doctrine of innate ideas. These 
writers deny that man comes into society with any other 
mental furnishings than the tendency to be and to do. 
This doctrine was a favorite one with Morelly and on it 
he parted company with Locke. It is this fact that 
formed the basis of the environment theory, made so 
much of by these early writers and which was the 
corner-stone of the social theory of Robert Owen. 

Of these philosophers the teachings of Helvetius are 
perhaps clearest and most positive and may be cited as 
typical of the school on this point. He denied the 
existence of innate ideas. Man's actions are neither 
to be explained nor controlled by appeal to internal 
forces. Knowledge is a result of sensation. The 
environment, therefore, with which man comes in 
contact makes him what he is. 1 Education, a fit social 
environment, the proper training of the young — these 
things make for a perfect social state. "The ideas 

1 Peabody, " Jesus Christ and Christian Character, " etc., N. Y. 
1905, pp. 9-10. 



234 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

supposed to be innate are those that are familiar to and 
as it were incorporated with us; they are the effect of 
education, example, and habit." * In this theory man 
is entirely without inherent moral qualities. " Moral 
ideas are a result of experience alone. Judgment 
presupposes sensibility and judgment itself is the fruit 
of comparison." 2 Happiness is the uniform object of 
all the passions. These are legitimate and natural and 
can be called neither good nor bad, only in so far as 
they are a social cause or force. To direct the passions 
toward virtue it is necessary to convince mankind of 
its advantages. Such were the general teachings of 
Helv&ius. 

Of the same nature is the teaching of D'Holbach. 
"Every sensation, then, is nothing more than a shock 
given to the organs; every perception is this shock 
propagated to the brain; every idea is the image of 
the object to which the sensation and perception are 
ascribed." 3 "Such are the only means by which man 
receives sensations, perceptions, and his ideas." 4 The 
same general theory may be found in Volney. Morelly 
in like manner denies the whole theory of innate ideas 
and of inherent evil. He denies that man has any 
natural tendency toward evil or any spirit of jealousy 
or disorder. 

1 "System of Nature," p. 15. 2 Ibid. 

8 "Nature and her Laws," Vol. I, p. 189. * Ibid., p. 192. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 235 

Thus was the theory of innate ideas denied, and the 
doctrine of primitive goodness took shape in the minds 
of the French philosophers. This doctrine, however, 
was not original with these writers though accepted by 
them and employed in their radical social teachings and 
actions. From a historical standpoint this period of 
native goodness had been reckoned in terms of the 
chronology of ethical development. To primitive 
peoples, anterior to the period of culture, this good- 
ness is attributed. Thus, in theological teachings, the 
period of perfection is placed at the beginning of things 
and the world moves away from it. 

In early profane writings the same idea of perfection 
obtains. For instance, Cicero says: "The earliest 
races of mankind, as yet free from evil passions, lived 
without reproach, without sin, and without the necessity 
of either punishment or coercion. But after a time this 
original state of equality disappeared and ambition and 
force took the place of modesty and simplicity." * This 
is not the theory, however, as held by the philosophers. 
To them the time element is not of importance. It 
was to them a logical and not a chronological considera- 
tion. It is true they taught that the golden age was in 
the past and that civilization, as they saw it, was a 
departure from it. But, as has been pointed out, they 
thought in terms of metaphysics and not of history. 
1 "Republic," Bk. V, Ch. 3. 



236 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

Their idea was to clear away the product of develop- 
ment and you would find the inherent goodness of man 
still existent. The writings of the time constantly 
speak of reversion to the native or primitive condition 
of man. This was the idea of Rousseau, Condillac, 
Morelly, and their associates. As has been pointed out, 
this type of socialism is reactionary. It finds a repre- 
sentative in England in recent time where William 
Morris advises a return to the early feudal type of 
social structure. 

• This eighteenth- century idea of goodness finds its 
source partly in the romance of travel which dealt in 
most instances sympathetically with the primitive life of 
savage peoples. The writings of the Jesuits, of Rous- 
seau, and Mrs. Aphra Behn are largely responsible for 
this interest in folk-culture. To Mrs. Behn, Rousseau 
owed the concept and the expression, "Le Bon Sau- 
vage." According to Lichtenberger this was the main 
contribution of this rather remarkable woman to social 
science. 1 She expressed the doctrine that primitive 
man was happy because he conformed to nature's 
laws and lived in a state of simplicity. 2 She stirred 
up interest in the study of this man of nature and what 
he might enjoy if left to develop naturally. She gave 
the suggestion, developed by later writers, that man is 
not inherently bad ; that he is by nature good and has 

*"Le Socialisme Utopique," pp. 21-23. 2 Ibid., p. 23. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 237 

social instincts; that he is not the fierce, warlike 
creature described by Hobbes; not the uncomely 
being satirized by Defoe; but rather a moral, benevo- 
lent type, following nature in his native simplicity. 1 

Thus briefly stated are some of the features of that 
hopeful philosophy of the eighteenth century which led 
the reformers to believe in man as a perfectible being, fit 
subject for a more perfect social and political condition. 
Such was a most useful concept to any scheme of social 
perfection; as a logical conclusion to the " state of 
nature" philosophy, it encouraged the destruction of 
existing forms. When the test of the validity of exist- 
ing social institutions was their conformity to natural 
law, and when it seemed apparent that society had not 
evolved according to this law, a long step was taken 
toward revolution. When along with the theory of 
goodness was placed the idea that evil arose from 
environment, and this in the sense of social environ- 
ment, then the field was cleared for a very radical 
change in this environment. With such hopeful theo- 
ries entertained, it was not unusual that dreams of ideal 
states came to those philosophic minds. " It is a logical 
necessity of the human mind to model a thing perfectly 
which will and must show its imperfections in the 

1 On Mrs. Behn, see Gildon, " History of Life and Memoirs 
of Mrs. Behn," 1863; "Plays, Histories, and Novels," etc., 6 vols., 
London, 187 1. Julia Kavanah, " English Women of Letters," Vol. I. 



238 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

execution. Hence it has been that before there have 
been practical schemes and workable plans there have 
been totally impractical dreams and Utopian societies.' ' 1 

9. Of the utmost interest and importance in the 
history of this radical thought are those theories dealing 
with the property right. Before the Revolution the 
discussion took a legal, juristic direction, treating of the 
most general ideas of property. Later study was 
applied more minutely to value and value- production 
and the equities arising from the economic process. 
The earlier views are found discussed in Locke, while 
Ricardo is credited with originating the surplus-value 
theory of Karl Marx, whose property-theory rests upon 
the concept of value-production. 

John Locke stated the labor-theory of property in 
his famous work, "Two Treatises of Government. ,, 
According to Locke property emerges and property- 
rights find their justification when labor has been 
expended on useless material things. 2 Students of 

1 Emerson, "Representative Men," London, 1850, p. 135. 

2 " Though the earth and all inferior creatures be common to all 
men, yet every man has a property in his own person. This nobody 
has any right to but himself. The labor of his body and the work of 
his hands we may say are properly his. Whatsoever he redeems out 
of the state nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his 
labor with it, and joined to it something that is his own and thereby 
makes it his property. It being by him removed from the common 
state nature placed it in it hath by this labor something annexed to 
it that excludes the common right of other men. For this labor being 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 239 

Marx will find this not far from true Marxian doctrine. 
Locke does not call value " congealed labor/ ' but this 
phrase practically sums up his theory. Locke's property 
theory is entirely in accord with the " natural rights" 
doctrine as later elaborated. 1 Natural law limits the 
extent to which the rights of property may go ; 2 the 
degrees of usefulness being the standard by which to 
judge. 3 

Grotius differed fundamentally with Locke as to the 
origin of property rights. He saw no virtue in labor as 
the origin of property-right. Neither the expenditure 
of labor nor the sacrifice involved in labor had any 
connection with either the right of property or with the 
addition of values. He did not recognize the creation 
of form-values ; nor could labor, added to raw material, 
change its status. Being of a legal turn of mind his 
inquiry did not extend further than the fact of present 

the unquestionable property of the laborer, no man but he can have 
a right to what that is once joined to ; at least there is enough and as 
good left in common for others. The labor that was mine removing 
them out of that common state hath fixed my property in them." — 
"Two Treatises of Government," Vol. II, Ch. V. 

1 " The original law of nature for the beginning of property in 
what was before common still takes place." — "Two Treatises of 
Government," Vol. II, Ch. V. 

2 " The same law of nature which by this means gives us property 
does also bound that property." 

3 " As much as any one can make use of before it spoils, so much 
he may by his labor fix a property in." 



240 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

possession which he claimed could originally be gained 
chiefly by first occupancy. 1 

As Locke had discussed property from the side of 
labor or from the standpoint of production, Pufendorf 
considered it from the utility or consumption view point. 
His point of departure was the existence of the needs of 
man. He adhered to the "right of subsistence" theory 
discussed above. The fact of human wants presumes 
man's right to control the necessary things for their 
satisfaction. Pufendorf denied that there were in- 
herent rights to property. Property does not exist in a 
state of nature ; it is therefore a result of the develop- 
ment of institutions. 2 Property arises merely as a 
result of convention, agreement, law, whereby dominion 
over certain things is fixed in one person. Accord- 
ing to Pufendorf when man left the state of nature, he did 
not take the institution of property nor even the instinct 
of property with him into society. 3 Property was the 

1 " Our business here then is to treat of taking possession by 
right of prior occupancy; which since those times just mentioned is 
the only natural and primitive manner of acquisition." — "Rights 
of War and Peace," Bk. II, Ch. 3. 

2 "And therefore 'tis an idle question, whether the property of 
things arise from nature or from institution; since we have plain 
evidence that it proceeds from the imposition of men." — "Law 
of Nature and of Nations," Bk. IV, Ch. 4. 

3 " Property is the result of an agreement. Therefore the prop- 
erty of things flowed immediately from the compact of men either 
tacit or expressed." — Op. cit. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 24 1 

result of social evolution and did not exist in primitive 
conditions. 1 

According to Hobbes there was no idea of property 
before institutions arose. Man in his primitive state 
had no property. In speaking of the relation of justice 
to injustice he says these things arise out of social 
organization. Property he treats in the same way. 
"It is consequent therefore to the same conditions that 
there be no propriety, no dominion, no mine and thine 
distinct ; but only that to be every man's that he can get 
and so long as he can keep it." 2 In a state of nature, 
every man has a right to everything. Property depends 
upon the institution of the coercive powers of the state. 
Property is a creation of society and is a legal and social 
rather than an individual or natural thing. As to the 
origin of the property right Hobbes follows Pufendorf. 
In general the first possessor has valid claim to property. 
"And therefore those things that cannot be enjoyed in 
common nor divided ought to be adjudged to the first 
possessor; and in some cases to the first-born as ac- 
quired by lot." 8 

Hobbes did not make society rest upon property as 
did Rousseau, Mably, Thiers, and others. He saw 
property grow out of social organization and order, as 

l Cf. Kautsky, "Vorlaufer des neueren Socialismus," Stuttgart, 

1895* p. 3- 

3 "Leviathan," Pt. I, Ch. 13. 3 Op. cit., Pt. I, Ch. 15. 

R 



242 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

one of their results. Property is not, then, a natural 
right, and would not be found in a state of nature. To 
return to this state would rid man of the evils of property. 
Alike in the happy state of the hopeful socialist and the 
gloomy realm of the cynical Hobbes would be lacking 
the problem of civilization — private property. 

These writers may be said to represent a class who 
were seriously attempting to explain and justify the 
right of property at a time when, with the break- 
ing up of feudalism, the system was being shaken, 
just as others arose to defend monarchy when, with 
the rise of democracy, its foundations were made inse- 
cure. It has been seen that the right of private 
property had been defended on three grounds: the 
labor theory, the right of the first occupant, and the 
social utility theory. 

Somewhat later there appeared in France a group of 
writers who equally as seriously questioned the right 
of private property. Of these there were two classes : 
those who saw in it evil and only evil and called for its 
abandonment, and those who condemned it, but who 
looked upon it as a social necessity, a necessary evil ; 
just as they viewed government or conventional society 
at large. 

10. Among the early writers who contemplated 
a social upheaval and opened a direct attack upon 
property perhaps the one of most interest was the 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 243 

curate, Jean Meslier. 1 Meslier was an uncompromising 
foe of property and set forth in the clearest manner his 
belief in the common control of the wealth of society. 
Among the evils which oppressed mankind and called 
for reform the worst is private property. 2 Meslier 
attacked property chiefly on sentimental grounds. 
Property means, he says, inequality ; inequality leads to 
injustice and oppression. 3 The rich are respected and 
honored, while the poor must toil in neglect. Property 
he condemns as a cause of idleness ; the idle rich class 
finds its complement in an idle poor class. This latter 
class is made up of the unemployed who, because of the 
present system, have nothing to do and are hence in 

1 Jean Meslier, or Mellier, was born in 1664. He was educated 
for orders, but gradually drifted into scepticism, and was the intel- 
lectual father and guide of Voltaire. From being sceptical as to 
certain tenets of the church he came to be a radical and aggressive 
materialist. From a religious critic he developed into a social icono- 
clast, and was as bitter against the existing social order as he was 
against the religious system. The chief source of his thought in this 
line was "Le Testament de Jean Meslier," a very rare book. There 
is an original copy in the National Library in Paris, from which these 
excerpts are made. 

2 " Un autre abus encore et qui est presque universellement recu et 
autorise dans le monde est l'appropriation particuliere que les hommes 
se font des biens et des richesses de la terre au lieu qu'ils devraient 
tous egalement les posseder en commun et en jouir aussi egalement 
en commun." — "Le Testament," Ch. 49. 

3 The close relationship of property rights to inequality he expresses, 
"l'appropriation particuliere que les hommes se font des biens et des 
richesses de la terre," is the cause of all oppression. Quoted by 
Griinberg, "Revue d'Economie Politique," 1888, p. 291. 



244 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

poverty. Cupidity and its attendants, ambition and 
greed, he points out as the evils in a society based upon 
property. Property does unite people; but through 
jealousy tends to break up social harmony, and hence 
destroys social unity. 

Like later socialists Meslier traces crime back to 
the institution of private property. Fraud, deception, 
theft, and murder, he affirms, find their cause in 
property. Society might be happy were goods made 
common and equality secured. Meslier saw what so 
many overlooked, that the basis of equality is equality 
of economic condition. Other writers before and after 
the Revolution saw and affirmed that political equality 
was an empty phrase so long as such a chasm sepa- 
rates those who have from those who have not. On 
this point these earlier writers agree. 

Drawing closer to the Revolution some attention is 
due the writer whose ideas had such an influence on all 
types of thought, Jean Jacques Rousseau. There has 
been much discussion recently concerning Rousseau's 
real teachings on questions of social organization. He 
has, on one hand, been called a communist, and an enemy 
of the then existing social order, and, on the other, a 
defender of private property and of social order. It 
seems safe to say that he was not a communist ; neither 
was he a social iconoclast. Indeed, he advises few 
radical measures of any kind. In a very general man- 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 245 

ner he condemned civilization and society at large, and 
thus it may be said he attacked the particular institution. 
In both his works, "Discours sur PInegalite " and his 
" Contrat Social,' ' he recognizes the necessary connection 
between property and a stable condition of society, and 
that modern civilization rests largely upon the institu- 
tion of private property. 1 If society must exist, then 
property must be tolerated as its basis and security. In 
a state of nature, according to Rousseau, there was 
no private property. Society and property came into 
existence together, and the two are complementary. 
This part of his theory appears in his oft-quoted phrase : 
"The first man who, having enclosed a piece of land, 
thought of saying 'This is mine,' and found a people 
simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of 
civil society." 

There are some interesting points of contact between 
the ideas of Rousseau and the earlier theories. With 
Locke he taught that above the needs of the individual 
no further right could exist. The natural and legitimate 
limits are the needs of the possessor. "Every man has 
by nature a right to all that is necessary to him ; ... his 
position allotted, he ought to confine himself to it, and 
he has no further right to the undivided property." 2 
The right of prior occupancy as either justification or 
explanation of the origin of property Rousseau held 

1 Baudrillart, op. cit., p. 283. 2 "Du Contrat Social," Book I, Ch. 9. 



246 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

was void ; as the right must be established before there 
could be property. The property right rests upon law, 
and is a contractual and not a natural right. Though 
merely a convention, it is of such importance that 
society cannot dispense with it. Property is the true 
foundation of civil society, and the true guarantee of the 
order of the citizen (engagement) ; for if the laws had no 
such sanction nothing would be easier than to evade duty 
and laugh at the laws. * 

Rousseau does, however, see evils in society and in 
the institution of private property in particular. These 
he attacks in no mild terms. "How many crimes, how 
many murders, how many wars, how many misfortunes 
and horrors would that man have saved the human 
race, who, pulling up the stakes and filling up the 
ditches, should have cried to his fellows : ' Be sure not 
to listen to this impostor; you are lost if you forget 
that the fruits of the earth belong equally to all, and the 
earth to nobody.' " 2 Rousseau admitted communism 
in theory, but he did not propose its application; he 
saw evils in the right of inheritance, but in view of 
the greater evil of very rapidly shifting fortunes he 
upheld the right of transmission. Rousseau was not a 
forerunner of the radical French school that produced 
the social side of the Revolution. His relations to the 

1 "A Discourse upon the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality 
among Mankind," p. 154. 2 Ibid., p. 97. 



EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RADICALISM IN FRANCE 247 

political aspects of the Revolution were no doubt more 

important, while in regard to the social side he was 

conservative, believing the existing institutions necessary 

to orderly society. He looked on property as one of the 

steps in the transition of man from the lower to a higher 

state. The abandonment of property would mean a 

reversion to barbarism. 1 He commends a return to a 

happy state of nature, but offers no definite substitute 

for the existing conditions. 

1 Sudre, " Histoire du Communisme, ou Refutation historique des 
Utopies socialistes," Paris, 1850, p. 169. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 

i. As has been stated there is a noticeable advance 
in method from the time of Thomas More to that of 
Morelly. Work in the social field was affected by this 
change. Gradually the spirit of inductive study and 
the habit of more scientific investigation had worked 
its way into the mental processes of the thinkers and 
writers on these lines. By the time of Morelly and 
Montesquieu a large element of accuracy and detail 
appears in the social treatises. Especially was this 
true of Montesquieu and Condorcet. In "Spirit of 
Laws " the historical, inductive process is most evident, 
and the conclusions rest upon a large amount of scien- 
tific reasoning. This feature is less marked in Morelly 
and still less in Rousseau. The writings of Morelly, 
however, show a marked historical tendency and a 
clearer, more analytic method. He deals in historical 
evidence and enters into detail in both his destructive 
and constructive work. "Conjectural" this history 
may be; imperfect the analysis may appear; meagre 
though the scheme for a new social structure certainly 
seems, — yet in the writings of Morelly is shown a 

248 



THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 249 

clearer appreciation of what the social problems are 
and more matured plans for their solution. 

In the first place Morelly so attempts to analyze 
society as to locate the causes of evil in the social en- 
vironment and not in the nature of the individual — 
a very fundamental proposition. He considers society 
in its two aspects, — the collective whole and its indi- 
vidual members, its constituent elements. The philoso- 
phers had also done this. The nature of the individ- 
ualistic teaching led to this view. The recognition of 
the individual as the "Unit of Empire" was one of the 
primary facts of the revolutionary thinking. 1 The 
marked advance in the method of Morelly lies in this : 
most writers of this time assumed a "man of nature," 
endowed with certain innate powers, qualities, and 
ideas ; 2 and while he was supposed to possess certain 
inalienable rights which existed before government 
and persisted in spite of such government, few had 
seriously considered the reasonable doubt as to the 
qualities and place of this assumed natural man. 3 
No serious attempt had been made outside of the con- 
jectures of romancists to trace this man of nature and 
this society based upon contract to see whether any such 
thing had existed or could in the nature of things exist. 

1 Kuno Francke, A History of German Literature as determined 
by Social Forces, 1903, p. 493. 

2 Instance Locke, " Human Understanding." 
8 Rousseau, "Contrat Social," Part I, p. 1. 



250 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

Satisfied with "glittering generalities," most writers 
paid little or no attention to the actual details of primi- 
tive society nor inquired how things had actually tran- 
spired. 

To certain little known and underestimated writers 
much credit is due for introducing into social study a 
more analytic method and the tendency to more thor- 
oughly investigate social origins. Among these Morelly * 
and Liftguet 2 are the most conspicuous examples. 
Their method was more inductive, their investigation 
less telescopic. Morelly asked the critical question 
whether, if a new type of society were to replace the 
old, it was possible with this kind of primitive man 
to maintain a better condition of society. This ques- 
tion he was hopeful enough to answer in the affirmative. 
He was optimistic enough to believe the experiment 
promised success and the chances for better social 
conditions justified a social revolution. He thought 
it possible to abandon the existing system and so to 
reorganize society as to give the nobler elements the 
supremacy instead of the selfish, baser passions which 
ruled under present conditions. 

Morelly, using the form of fiction, at first published a 
covert but bitter attack on existing society, and suggested 
in vague form a new social state free from the evils 

1 "Code de la Nature," 1755. 

8 "Theorie des Lois Civiles," Paris, 1767, 2 vols. 



THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 25 1 

which marked his age. 1 His "Code de la Nature" 
made no pretence, however, to veil its true meaning 
either as to matter or purpose. It was a clear, definite 
statement of revolutionary doctrine in a very revolu- 
tionary age. It is in his teachings that the radical 
revolutionary philosophy in France took a definite 
meaning and added importance in the form of a con- 
structive social scheme, much as the New Thought was 
given a practical revolutionary direction in Italy by 
the Calabrian monk. The "Code" appeared eight 
years after the "Spirit of Laws," and the year following 
the "Contrat Social." The first part is occupied with 
a defence of the main contentions of the "Basiliade"; 
the second and third books deal critically with the 
existing social state; while the last book outlines his 
constructive plan for a perfect commonwealth. It 
contains a set of definite rules whose introduction would 
so transform society as to lead to a happy social state. 

2. In the preceding chapter the general drift of 
thought along those lines which touch socialistic theory 
has been briefly outlined. The more special application 
of these theories will be here pointed out as found in 
the works of Morelly. 

One of the fundamental doctrines in the theory of 
Morelly was his denial of the dogma of innate ideas, 
fathered by John Locke, and holding sway for a century 

1 "Basiliade," 1751-1753. 



252 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

previous. This attitude was of importance in its rela- 
tion to the possibility of a radical social change, while 
it cleared the way for Morelly's doctrine of human 
goodness and his theory of environment. It is quite 
obvious that the attempt to defend private property by 
basing it upon an innate and common human instinct 
fails where any such notion is denied. 

In denying the existence of such innate ideas, as Morelly 
did, he destroyed the argument that private property 
was consistent with the instincts and the nature of 
man ; or that it had social utility in furnishing the so- 
called original and hence indestructible source of eco- 
nomic stimulus and motive. 1 If there be no innate sense 
or idea of property, then, when man has been reduced 
to his native simplicity and stripped of his social herit- 
age, there is no ambition nor desire for property to 
perplex. If property is no more than an historical cate- 
gory, then it is merely an artificial institution, not origi- 
nal, not natural nor necessary, not eternal, and may well 
pass away in the process of historical development. 

3. As has been said, the theory of a condition of 
primitive goodness and happiness is an old and popular 
one. It has long been set forth by writers, sacred and 
profane. Goodness and happiness have generally been 

1 "L'homme n'a ni idees ni penchants innes." — "Code," p. 52. 
Cf . Helvetius, where the ideas said to be innate are only those most 
familiar to us, the result of education, culture, and habit. " System 
of Nature," translation, p. 15. 



THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 253 

linked together in the relation of cause and effect. 
From the biblical account, where, in a lost paradise, 
perfect goodness was coupled with perfect happiness, 
down to the period of the Revolution this idea found 
a great variety of supporters. Morelly partook of the 
same delightful optimism, that to make people good 
was possible, and that perfect happiness would certainly 
follow. He is not the only social reformer to follow 
this fond delusion. 

As Rousseau and Montesquieu had done, Morelly 
took as his type the Indians of North America. In this 
choice he shows the use he made of the inductive 
method and seems to have had some facts as a basis 
for his theories. He had probably learned the parlance 
of the times from Mrs. Behn and Rousseau. He 
discussed the noble Indian as illustrative of a people 
living under primitive conditions, where happiness and 
goodness were synonymous. Against the gay but 
superficial society of eighteenth-century France, he set 
the humbler modes and simpler manners of primitive 
man marked by lofty virtues, much as Tacitus had done 
with the early Germans for the degenerate Romans. 1 

This theory, as advanced by Morelly, bears the philo- 
sophical rather than the theological stamp. His work 
sounds more modern and up to date than that of earlier 
writers ; it savors of a type of speculative, political, and 

1 Tacitus, " Germania." 



254 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

social philosophy ; his ideas are more legal and definite. 
With him goodness does not mean conformity to some 
divine law, but a certain obedience to the metaphysical 
concept of the "law of nature." His idea of the right 
to rule is the divine right of the people rather than the 
old divine theory of kingship. 

With Morelly the "good man" is one who can be 
thoroughly socialized, whose individuality will be lost 
in the social whole. To him the "Fall of Man" means 
his departure from nature's law, and his social salva- 
tion can be effected only through his return to nature. 
This was his lord and father of all. This, then, is 
the basis of Morelly's proposed new society. He 
posits a "man of nature," who is the prototype of the 
true social unit. He is not the "economic man" of 
the economist's dream, marked by egoism and selfish- 
ness; he is the highly socialized man. He is not the 
warlike, natural man portrayed by Hobbes, nor the 
imperfect specimen of Locke; he is not the man of 
original sinfulness set forth by the theologian. Man, 
as Morelly saw him, was of good qualities, capable of 
perfectibility and fitted by the laws of his being to be 
more completely socialized. He so pictured the car- 
dinal virtues of the primitive man as to indicate that 
society can be held together without force and can be 
dominated by the social elements. Morelly then 
denies the theory of innate ideas and of original sin. 



THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 255 

He denies that man is essentially, inherently evil, and 
proclaims the brighter doctrine of native goodness. 
He teaches the doctrine of human perfectibility, and on 
these propositions bases his hopes of a regenerated 
society. 

4. These philosophic principles, held by Morelly 
and his radical associates, though apparently very 
impractical, were at bottom sound premises on which 
to advance. The question put and answered by Morelly 
was this : Is the source of evil and wrong to be found in 
society as at present organized, or is it traceable to 
deeper causes in human nature itself? Has human 
nature the inherent qualities or the lack of certain 
qualities now dominant, that a new society may be 
constructed and social wrong, misery, and injustice be 
banished? The same question was asked as to the 
common man's fitness to take part in government, 
when democracy was young. A variety of answers 
might be found ; nor is it yet entirely settled how far 
every person is endowed to become a part of the active 
political society. If the success of society, politically 
organized, depends so largely upon the possibilities of the 
individual citizen, the question is certainly ever timely 
when the chances of a socialistically organized industrial 
society are under discussion. If democracy fails, it 
fails because the common man is not properly endowed 
politically. Should socialism be tried and fail, it would 



256 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

fail because man is not properly endowed socially 
and industrially. 1 

Morelly was firmly attached to the environment 
theory of evil. In this he was followed by Robert 
Owen, whose whole system of reform was based upon 
the proposition that with proper social and industrial 
environment people will generally be good and do good. 2 
Morelly claimed that evil arose from secondary and not 
from primary causes. As the cause of evil is not in 
man, the element of society, but in the maladjustment 
of social forces, it can therefore be eradicated, and 
society is not hopeless. Its hope lies in the destruction 
of those institutions whereby the social instincts are 
perverted into selfishness. Society must therefore be 
reduced to its original elements and reorganized accord- 
ing to the laws of nature. 

For Morelly history meant little or nothing. It 
taught no lessons and told only of man's oppression by 
institutions of his own creation to which he had sub- 
mitted. It was an abstract man of social instincts 
and of unchangeable qualities that formed the basis 
of the social theorizing of Morelly. It was the same 
general concept that was embodied in the "economic 
man." The same idea underlies the deductions 

1 On this see Schaffle, "The Impossibility of Social Democracy." 

2 Robert Owen, "New View of Society " ; or essays on the forma- 
tion of the human character, London, 181 6. 



THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 257 

of Adam Smith, Malthus, and Ricardo. It was this 
abstraction that was made use of by such advocates of 
perfectibility as Godwin, Helvetius, Shelley, and Jeffer- 
son. It was this idea of a constant social unit in a 
static state that had such influence in theory and practice 
until Hegel in philosophy, Savigny in law, Darwin in 
science, Knies and Hildebrand in economics, and 
Karl Marx in socialism taught the lesson of evolution 
in all lines, and banished the myths of "man of nature/' 
"economic man," etc., into the limbo of forgotten things. 

The early theories taught that man was inherently 
and normally bad; the later revolutionary doctrines 
treat him as a creature of infinite social and political 
possibilities if he can but be set free from thraldom to 
existing institutions. Of these the one treated as of 
prime importance was private property. This, then, is 
the starting-point for the destructive work of Morelly. 

5. Private property, says Morelly, is a great master- 
ing fact in society which determines the whole course 
of civilization ; from it all evils flow, and its abandon- 
ment would solve all the social problems. 1 

On the evils of the regime of property he says: "It 

1 "Depuis le sceptre jusqu'a la houlette, depuis la tiare jusqu'a le 
plus vil froc, si Ton demande qui gouverne les hommes, la re*ponse 
est facile ; Pinteret personnel ou un interet Stranger que la vanite* fait 
adopter, et qui est toujours tributaire du premier, mais de qui ces 
monstres tiennent-ils le jour? de la propria." — "Code de la 
Nature," pp. 100 -101. 
s 



258 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

is vain to search for a perfect state of liberty and social 
progress when a tyrant of private property continues 
to oppress mankind. It is vain to discuss the form of 
government; the means of establishing republics; all 
this is vain so long as private property subsists to 
break up social harmony and make mankind indolent, 
jealous, ambitious, and unsocial." Of all schemes, 
whether under aristocracy, monarchy, or democracy, 
Morelly says with much emphasis: "Quel freles sup- 
ports, Grand Dieu ! tous portent plus ou moins sur 
la propriete et Pintdret les plus ruineux de tous les 
fondements." * He taught that the leading feature 
in the present civilization was private property; and 
its unhappy outgrowths were the legion of evils which 
curse society. 

Right here he grasped an idea which later socialism 
has taught. Changes in the form of government are 
superficial so long as society is economically unbalanced. 
Property keeps society ever in a state of uncertain 
equilibrium. Why, he asks, should social welfare and 
stability be constantly menaced by that thing best 
fitted and inclined to destroy them ; namely, property ? 
Such has been the evil that has overthrown the most 
flourishing empires while nothing has done more to 
stir the savage spirit of revolution than has property. 
With some such statements, often repeated, Morelly 

1 " Code de la Nature," p. 102. 



THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 259 

condemns property as the root of social evils and 
misery. 

Communism in property, as advocated by Morelly, 
and in fact by most of its adherents, does not mean the 
abandonment of the idea of ownership of property 
nor of saving and acquisition. It does not imply the 
rejection of these, any more than does the acceptance of 
democracy in place of monarchy mean to abandon 
sovereignty and abrogate control and government. 

Communism would transfer the control of property 
from the individuals to the community, conceived of as 
a unity. Democracy involves the transfer of sovereignty 
from a monarch to the separate individuals, upon a 
decidedly individualistic basis. Communism seeks the 
socialization of the rights of property. Democracy 
means the decentralization of the rights of sovereignty. 
It is in this respect that all socialism, of a radical type, 
conflicts with individualism. It strikes at the main 
factor in the development of man's place and power 
in society; that is, his control over property. It could 
be easily shown that the history of the evolution of 
property and of the property idea in the social classes 
would fairly synchronize with the growth of liberty 
and of individualism from slavery through serfdom up 
to the free laborer and to the freer capitalist employer. 

Furthermore, communism, as here taught, does not 
contemplate the equal division of goods; it does not 



260 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

propose to divide them at all. It means the concen- 
tration of all goods in the hands of the communal group. 
The distribution of surplus- values flowing from the in- 
dustrial process must find another basis than the one 
where society rests on private ownership of the social 
wealth. Here the right to the shares of surplus- value 
rests upon, and is to some extent at least proportionate 
to, the control over the factors of production. The 
fact of private ownership has for ages been the rather 
simple and, under the existing regime, fairly equitable 
principle for the distribution of the social income. 
Ownership of wife or of slave, of serf or of land, and 
later of capital has been at least a working principle 
for distribution. With the abandonment of private 
property, however, some new norm must be discovered 
and applied. Several have been advanced. That all 
share alike, is the simplest one and, ignoring equity, 
would be workable. That each share according to his 
wants is another, more equitable but less practical. 
The theory of Morelly is discussed under his construc- 
tive scheme. 

As to the social utility of the proposed system Morelly 
had no doubt ; not only did he deny the natural rights 
justification of property, but he rejected the theory then 
so prevalent, that property was socially necessary. 
Over this question Mably and Mercier had debated, 
the latter claiming that property was an essential 



THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 26 1 

part of the social organization; this Mably denied. 
In England Harrington had first urged the vital rela- 
tionship between property and social stability ; * while 
in France it became a tenet of the physiocratic school. 
Rousseau had conceded much to this view, and Mably 
saw much reason in it. Morelly was, therefore, one of 
the most radical of this group and paved the way for 
those more extreme revolutionary theorists, Brissot and 
Babeuf. 2 In this respect Morelly was a thorough- 
going socialist as the term is interpreted in this essay. 
He was not a reformer nor philanthropist ; he had no 
confidence in reforming the existing society; he de- 
manded a new structure. 

6. One of the problems which all types of reformers, 
moral, political, and social, must face, is to supply the 
proper motive to efficient and worthy action. One of 
the fundamental objections urged against socialism 
since the days of Plato is that it would rob society of 
its underlying and propelling motive. It is claimed that 
there is danger of creating a nerveless society; that to 
interfere with private property, with individual initia- 
tive, and with the personal control over one's economic 
course, would limit production, check progress, and 
work a general wreck of industrial prosperity. 

To this difficulty Morelly seriously addressed himself. 
He admitted that there is a strong economic motive 

1 Harrington, "Oceana." 2 See Ch. VIII., infra. 



262 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

taken away when private property and the incentive 
to saving are abandoned. He denied, however, that 
idleness would make shipwreck of society thus organized. 
The great mass of idleness he saw about him he at- 
tributed to the facts of property and the right of in- 
heritance. 1 Do away with these and he believed that 
the idle class, and idleness in all classes, would dis- 
appear. Here he saw a compensation for any loss of 
incentive to labor. Industry would become a necessity 
for all, and the army of the employed would be much 
enlarged. Morelly's "economic man" was prompted 
by vastly different motives from those driving on the 
economic man in the pecuniary age. He would be in- 
duced to labor by economic motives as all peoples have 
been, even the American Indians, whom he uses as 
examples. There is, however, a vast difference in the 
economy of the primitive man and that of the modern 
economic man. One has the motives arising from 
a desire for profits, for acquisition, for property; the 
other toils only for the necessary and useful things; 
one is interested in exchange, the other in use, 
values. 

Moreover, Morelly points out a second fact, and in 
this he foreshadows modern theories. It is not labor 
that men avoid, it is the unpleasantness of it. Once 
make labor attractive, make idleness repulsive, weari- 

1 "Code de la Nature," p. 61. 



THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 263 

some, and unpopular, and the problem is solved. 1 In 
the future state as depicted by Morelly, as in that of 
the fair dreams of Fourier, labor was to be enjoyable 
and pain and ennui would arise from idleness. In this 
respect Morelly was a direct forerunner of Fourier. 2 

There was, furthermore, a broader principle involved 
in the theory of Morelly. His scheme of socialization 
involved the bringing into private life a larger public 
purpose as regards industrial effort. In the social 
state of the future, men are to feel themselves a part of 
the state from an industrial, as they do now from a civil, 
standpoint. 3 The same energy, unselfishness, and de- 
votion which mark the citizen's performance of civic 
duty would characterize the economic activity of the 
citizens of this new social state. 

7. Approaching more closely to the details of Morelly's 
scheme, some interesting suggestions appear. There 
was no private ownership of productive goods; only 
those things for immediate use could be held privately. 4 
There was to be public control of industry and every 
person was to become a public servant. "Tout citoyen 
sera homme public, sustentd, entretenu, et occupe 
aux depens du public." 5 The industrial schemes of 

1 Ibid., pp. 45-58. 2 "Basiliade," p. 28. 

8 Popularly urged to-day as a means whereby civic interest might 
be awakened. 

■ " Code de la Nature," p. 152. 5 Ibid. 



264 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

Morelly foreshadow the later French collectivism. 1 In 
his ideal society much attention is paid to the creation 
of primary utilities of which agricultural products have 
the preference. Morelly showed marked physiocratic 
tendencies. Each city was to maintain as large a piece 
of land as was necessary for the inhabitants. Every 
citizen after his twentieth year was compelled to work 
at agriculture for five years. One chapter of the 
"Code" is devoted to a discussion of the means and 
ends of agriculture. 

The plan of industrial organization set forth is in the 
form of local collectivism; it was paternal, somewhat 
after the manner of a mediaeval craft-guild. Members 
of the professions were divided into groups of ten or 
twenty laborers and placed under a master. These 
groups were close corporations, admission being gained 
by long apprenticeship directed to giving great pro- 
ficiency in the trade. 

8. Every one must labor in this society. There were 
to be no drones in this social hive. There was no 
provision for a leisure class either at the top or bottom 
of the social scale. Every man was born into the in- 
dustrial state, as in the Middle Ages every one was born 
into the church, or by modern polity every one is born 
into the civil state. All must, therefore, prepare for 

1 Cf . plans of Vidal and Pecqueur outlined in their works already 
cited. 



THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 265 

a place in industrial society, a fact applied to-day from 
a civil standpoint in the systems of compulsory educa- 
tion. The industries were open except where groups 
were overcrowded; in such cases the magistrates per- 
formed the task now allotted to free competition ; that 
is, to equalize the labor supply. 1 After the citizens had 
spent the proper time at agriculture they were allowed 
to enter the various trades — a decided protest against 
the guild system then dominant in France against 
which Turgot directed one of his six edicts. 

The length of the labor day is left less definite by 
Morelly than by the other writers examined. The 
masters of the various trades were to fix the length of 
day. The days of rest were, however, fixed. Each 
fifteenth day was to be a public holiday. It will be re- 
called that the Revolutionary Assembly of 1793 made 
every tenth day a holiday. 

9. Morelly did not overlook the fact that the kern of 
the social problem is, and always has been, the problem 
of the distribution of the product of industry among 
the producers in the regime of private, but among the 
consumers under a system of communistic, industry. 
In every scheme of social organization the greatest 
difficulty lies here, and communism has by no means 
solved it even theoretically, to say nothing of what might 
come in practice. While it is not stated clearly, the 

1 " Code de la Nature," p. 160. 



266 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

theory of Morelly seems to be that "each is to labor 
according to his ability and share according to his 
needs." * (Scheme of Saint- Simon.) 

Morelly divides wealth into "natural goods" and 
"artificial goods." These he classifies as durable and 
transient. From a standpoint of value they are either 
necessaries or luxuries. Goods for general use were to 
be stored in magazines for regular distribution among 
the people. This is, of course, a distribution of goods 
and not of values. Productive goods were also stored 
and given out to the ateliers as the workmen had 
need. 2 Goods were measured and distributed quan- 
titatively, no attention being paid to the problem of 
values. The plan was to apportion goods according 
to the primary needs of the people. 3 

Morelly conceived of a society in which no exchange 
of values took place; or if any, it was of the simplest 
form of service against consumable goods. No goods 
were to be sold and no mercantile profits were allowed. 
In this regard, Morelly shows his connection with 
modern socialism. "Profits" have ever been objec- 
tionable to radical thinkers of this type. While no 
exact statement is made of "surplus- value," of "un- 
earned increment," or of " exploitation of labor," yet in 

^'Code," pp. 153 and 154. 2 Ibid., pp. X53-X55. 

8 " Ces productions de toute espece seront denombre*es et leur 
quantite sera proportionnee, soit au nombre des citoyens de chaque 
cite, soit au nombre des citoyens qui en usent." — "Code," p. 154- 



THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 267 

essence this is what Morelly protests against. What he 
says on this point is not great in amount ; it is not very 
clear in form ; it does, however, contain the germ of the 
most important contention of all socialism. Stripped 
of its scientific nomenclature, freed from much of its 
verbiage, separated from the sophistry and dialectic 
used as a safe statement of dangerous doctrine — rid 
of all these, the tenets of socialism are after all simple. 
They may be reduced to about two principles : that 
sacrifice must rest upon physical effort and that all 
should sacrifice alike. 

Epigrammatically put, socialism means, there shall 
be no idle class. It means a reduction of modern, 
complex society to a state of primitive society; a con- 
dition where all must labor and labor alike. It is 
probably not so much the luxuries of the propertied 
class that create socialist sentiment, as the so-called 
idleness. Hence the bitter attack of all socialism on 
that form of social and industrial organization under 
which a certain portion of society can live without 
laboring. Here then is the chief fact in the work of 
Morelly : society must be so constructed that all sources 
of income are rejected except labor. Labor being 
possessed by all men, a condition of lasting equality 
will be produced. 

In sharp contrast to the mercantile theory just 
passing in Europe, which had so long held to the pecun- 



268 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

iary advantages of foreign commerce, Morelly held 
that foreign commerce should exist merely to supply 
necessary commodities for consumption, which the 
respective countries could not well produce. All was 
to be so arranged that profits, and specially those ex- 
pressed in money, should not accrue. 

10. The leading feature of Morelly's scheme of 
political organization is his adherence to the natural 
rights doctrine. He advises a form of political society 
which he calls democracy, although it bears the ear- 
marks of a patriarchal form of state. He defines a 
democracy as a society where the people consent to obey 
the laws of nature and live under the command of 
the father of the families. 1 Monarchy, he says, is the 
most dangerous and least stable form of government, 
especially when based on private property ; with 
this institution abolished, monarchy would be fairly 
stable. 2 

Morelly taught that the early form of society and 
government was patriarchal. Among the several causes 
which led to its breakup were the increase of population, 
migration, and the accompanying growth of private 
property. Community of feeling and of interests 
arising from consanguinity form the original basis of 
social unity. The increase of population broke up 

1 He has the idea of "tacit consent" and of the " volonte* generate " 
of Rousseau. 2 "Code," p. 105. 



THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 269 

the consanguine groups ; it also made migration neces- 
sary, and the meeting of strange groups still further 
estranged the members of society. This led to the 
destruction of society based upon the social principle 
of mutual interests and created a society where conflict 
and not mutuality of interests was the rule. The 
spirit of antagonism embodied and perpetuated itself 
in the institution of private property. When this has 
been thoroughly developed, society, in Morelly's mean- 
ing, ceases, and the long struggle of classes and their 
interests begins. This is not true society; it arises 
from a perversion of the social instincts, and true 
socialization can only be effected by the abandonment 
of private property and the reestablishment of mutual 
interests. 1 He believed that primitive society had com- 
munal property, that the bonds of consanguinity were 
the earliest social ties, that private property and its 
associated brood of wrongs have their effects in the 
chaos in society and in the loss of primitive social 
harmony. 

Morelly directly attacked the ruling forces in France. 
The monarch, he said, was on a very unstable throne. 
The religious and civil powers had united to perpetuate 

1 " La raison, dis je, de tous ces effets peut se tirer de Pobstination 
g6ne*rale des l£gislateurs a rompre 011 laisser rompre le premier lien 
de toute sociability par des possessions usurpe*es sur le fonds qui 
devait indivisiblement appartenir a Phumanite" entiere." — "Code," 
p. 87. 



270 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

their power. 1 Their supreme power was, however, 
more seeming than real. On the eve of that Revolu- 
tion which, as Carlyle says, did so much to reduce 
" chimeras to realities," these teachings of Morelly 
seem prophetic. In view of the struggle so soon to be 
waged, these charges of tyranny and misrule were as 
timely as they were bold and outspoken. In his brief 
but clear arraignment of the social and political insti- 
tutions with their hollowness and mockery, one sees a 
severe criticism not unlike the more subtile attack of 
Sir Thomas More on the English society of his day. 

Morelly accepts the contract theory of society. 
Thus organized rulers are viewed only as the servants 
of the people and rule only by their consent. The im- 
prescriptible rights of the people hold as against the 
will of the rulers. 2 The senate was to keep exact ac- 
count of the number of persons in each tribe and also 
the demand for employment in each. It had power in 
the most arbitrary fashion to equalize population groups. 
He advised the regulation of the increase of the popu- 
lation so as to keep the birthrate and deathrate alike. 
This sums up what he had to say on the problem of 
population. A complete set of rules is laid down for 
the regulation of the family group whose sphere the 

1 " Ces exemples prouvent done que dans le monde moral con- 
struit comme il est par des mains mortelles, il n'y a ni veritable subor- 
dination ni veritable liberte." — " Code," p. 100. 

2 Ibid., p. 109. 



THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 27 1 

public power was supposed to invade at will. His 
teachings on family life, however, were wholesome and 
conservative. To him the destruction of private 
property did not necessitate the ruin of the family. 
To most such advocates the two institutions stand or 
fall together. 1 

1 1 . The educational plans of Morelly have been about 
as much neglected as have his social ideas ; yet he was, 
if not the originator, then the inspirer of much that 
Rousseau taught. It is not possible here to trace these 
ideas at length, nor to establish the debt Rousseau owes 
him in connection with his "Emile." Certain it is that 
their lines of thought were very similar. 

Morelly advocated a natural system of education. 
The necessary relationship between the stages of mental 
development and the matter studied, he carefully re- 
garded. The various subjects are added only as the 
reason is developed to appreciate them. 2 He also 
carefully pointed out the public purpose of education 
and its relation to the welfare of the state. Very early 
the child was to be taught the laws of the state and to 
respect established authority. 3 The youths were cul- 
tured in those lines at once fitted to further the in- 
dividual interests and the common welfare. Education 

1 Cf. Engels, "Ursprung der Familie, des Privat eigenthums und 
des Staats," 1892, where the family is made the foundation of the 
institution of property. 

2 "Code," pp. 170. * Ibid., p. 1 71-172. 



272 . SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

must also serve to eradicate certain dangerous social 
ideas — among them the desire for private property. 
In his society there was to be complete freedom of 
thought and toleration in religion, only writings touch- 
ing morals or the public welfare were to be cen- 
sored. 1 

The clearest suggestions as to the need and nature 
of the technical schools, now so widely established in 
France, are to be found in the writings of Morelly. He 
laid emphasis on the importance of training in the 
industrial arts, and as all must labor in his society, none 
were exempt from this technical training. His plan 
suggests the English apprentice-laws. 

As has been said, all the parts of Morelly's scheme 
were highly artificial. So with his educational plans. 
The purpose of education was the common welfare. 
When all over Europe there was education for the upper 
classes alone, he advocated a universal system. 'When 
the educational system was a revenue-producing insti- 
tution, Morelly proposed not only free but compulsory 
education. While learning was still advancing along 
the narrow lines of the classics, bearing the marks of 
mediaeval culture, Morelly proposed the founding of 
industrial and technical schools to better prepare the 
masses for practical life. His educational ideas were 
far advanced and he must be credited with very sane 

lu Code," pp. 172-173. 



THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 273 

notions in this line as shown by such other radicals as 
Rousseau, Owens, and Fourier. 

12. In striking contrast with some of the rising 
doctrines of his age stand the ideas and teachings of 
Morelly. Helvetius, in his now almost forgotten work, 
" Essays on the Human Mind," had taught that self- 
interest was the dominant motive in life. Adam Smith, 
leaving aside his " Theory of Moral Sentiments" 
marked by the lesson of altruism, took up the other side 
of life — its extreme selfishness — and constructed one 
of the most useful but satirical myths, the " Economic 
Man." Legislators and philosophers were discussing 
whether the public and private interests could be rec- 
onciled. During this time Morelly had urged that 
man's highest happiness is reached as he works in the 
interests of the social aggregate, and as a servant of all. 
He taught that public interest and private welfare are 
one and the same thing, and attainable through the 
establishment of a community of interests. 

Out of the prevailing sensationalist philosophy 
naturally came an extreme individualistic tendency in 
social teaching; where sensation is made the basis of 
all knowledge, and the happiness experienced the 
highest test of good, individual pleasure is sure to be- 
come the touchstone of right social action and selfish- 
ness the dominant creed of life. The utility theory of 
value, the pleasure and pain doctrine of morals, and the 



274 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

state of nature theory of rights — all these, are insepa- 
rable from an individualistic view of man and his social 
relations. Whether consistent or not, Morelly protests 
against these desocializing ideas. Morelly sees the 
happiness and welfare of the whole state the thing to 
be sought for as Plato had taught so long before; 
happiness dwells neither in this class nor in that, but 
in the state as a whole. * In the prevailing English 
thought, marked by extreme individualism, social wel- 
fare was hoped for as the individual followed his own 
selfish ends; in the teaching of Morelly social welfare 
was expected as man became absorbed and incorporated 
in the state. 2 

The dominant motive in the society portrayed by 
Morelly arises from the social instincts. In fact his 
study of what might be called an enlightened self-love 
led him to make a most valuable contribution to social 
thought. In his discussion of the human passions he 
has anticipated the work of Fourier in the theory of the 
"attraction passionelle." Morelly considered none of 
the human passions as wrong nor harmful ; all were to 
be developed and in this way a more perfect socializa- 
tion could be attained. It is this type of socialized 
egoism that Morelly believes will lead to the highest 

1 "Republic," Jowett's translation, pp. 107-108. 
2 Dowden, "The French Revolution and English Literature," 
p. 7. 



THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF MORELLY 275 

social action. 1 Morelly here reaches a conclusion made 
so much of later by Fourier. Both held that, as in 
the physical world, one dominant force rules ; so in the 
moral world there is one controlling power. With 
Morelly it is enlightened self-love; with Fourier it is 
the "attraction passionelle." 

1 " L'amour de nous memes est ce mobile ge'ne'ral qui nous pousse 
vers le bien ; et les passions dont il est la source prennent leurs noms 
des degre*s de force qui nous en approchent ou nous en eloignent." 
— "L'Essai sur le cceur humain," London, 1746. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 

i. There had been then, previous to the Revolution, 
a certain recognition of social as well as of political 
wrongs and inequalities. The protest against these 
conditions was not made directly against any class, nor 
was it taken up by any distinct order of society. There 
was no capitalist class nor any proletariat class. 1 This 
very indefinite protest, this rather vague, anti-social 
teaching, ended with the Revolution, when a definite 
attack was made on existing institutions and a class- 
struggle began. At this time the labor-class or the 
proletaire, as the French came to call the propertyless 
class, began a struggle for recognition and a place in 
society. As Buonarroti says: " Besides, it was the 
general conviction that the zeal of the Proletarians, the 
only true supporters of equality, would redouble when 
they saw executed, from the very outset of the insur- 
rection, those engagements, so many times postponed, 
by which their hard lot was to be ameliorated ; and the 

1 Jaures, "Histoire Socialiste" (sous la Direction de Jean Jaures), 
Vol. I, p. 4. 

276 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 277 

secret Directory felt the greater confidence in the forces 
from the circumstance that its agents, while describing 
the people's impatience, boldly demanded of it the 
signal of battle." ! 

Without either going into a study of those radical 
measures, suggested in France by the countless cahiers 
with which the Assembly was flooded, or into the laws 
actually proposed or passed in that body, — a task 
very well done by a recent writer, — notice will be 
called to a few of the radical utterances of the most 
radical advocates of social innovation in France on the 
eve of and during the period of the Great Revolution. 2 
These writers bring to a close that radical aspect of 
socialism which hoped to reach social justice and better- 
ment through a wholesale destruction of the existing 
order in so far as it was based upon private property. 

The radicalism of the French Revolution was com- 
munistic only in a limited sense. An attack was made 
not against property in general, but only against certain 
phases of it. It was against the abuse rather than the 
use of the institution that protest was made and action 
was taken. 3 Property rights resting upon the old feudal 
regime, and those in the possession of the clergy, were 

1 "History of Babeuf's Conspiracy," English translation, 1836, 
p. 139 ; cf. Jaures, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 5 et seq. 

2 Lichtenberger, "Le Socialisme et la Revolution francaise," 
Paris, 1899. 

8 Cf. Jaures, "Etudes Socialistes," Paris, 1902, p. 91. 



278 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

revolutionized. 1 No doubt the exemptions enjoyed by 
the upper classes, which freed them from the burdens 
incident to property, had accentuated the hatred toward 
the institution. 

The final effect of the agitation on the stability of 
property was greatly to strengthen its foundations by 
more thoroughly distributing it, by revising the laws of 
inheritance, and by shifting the right of ownership from 
the old basis of feudal to the new basis of positive law ; 
and that passed, presumably at least, by the will of a 
democratic society. 2 At this time the law was passed, 
which is still valid in France, compelling equal division 
of property among all heirs. 3 There was a twofold 
movement; a confiscation of land on the part of the 
state, in the form of those estates which rested upon 
feudal rights, and then the decentralizing of these hold- 
ings through the breaking up of those estates 
and their division among a broad constituency. By 
thus creating a large middle-class of small property- 
holders a greater stability was given to all social 
institutions. The principle of private property was 

1 Janet, "Les origines du socialisme contemporain," Paris, 1883, 
p. 6. 

2 Lichtenberger, " Le Socialisme et la Revolution francaise," pp. 61 
et seq. 

3 See Law of 1793 on property and inheritance. 

Cf. Lichtenberger, op. cit., p. 65; Jaures, "Histoire Socialiste," 
Vol. I, pp. 226 et seq. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 279 

then given a large and an interested constituency of 
property-holders. 

Although there was during the Revolution a strong 
tendency, widespread and active, to resist the demoraliz- 
ing influences of anarchy and communism, there was 
also a considerable tendency toward revolutionary 
socialism following the lead of Morelly and Mably. 
" The principle, once recognized, that the right of 
regulating for the general good, the distribution of 
wealth and of the labor that produces it, belongs to 
society; and that from inequality of distribution flow 
as from an inexhaustible source all the calamities that 
afflict nations; it follows that Society should provide 
that this inequality be destroyed never to return. " ! 
Such a principle may not have been universally or even 
generally recognized; it had certainly been strongly 
suggested before the Revolution, and radical leaders 
and writers did all in their power, during the great 
movement, to have this ideal realized. 2 It actually 
issued in a very great expansion of the public power into 
the sphere of the individual and the assumption by the 
state of very extended control. Did space permit, very 
ample illustrations of this condition could be given ; as 

1 Buonarroti, op. cit., p. 151. 

See, Speeches of Mallet du Pan, "Tracts"; also, "History of the 
Brissotins" by Desmoulins, London, 1794. 

2 Cf . Barnave, "Introduction a la Revolution francaise," 1791, 
Buonarroti, op. cit. f p. 151. 



280 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

in the law of 1793 settling property or the attempt of the 
legislature to fix wages and prices, and the decree of the 
insurrectionary committee involving a minute super- 
vision by the government of all the industrial processes. 1 

2. In general, it may be said that the social theories 
advanced during the Revolution are more definite and 
concise. They sound more modern. There is more 
of the class-color about them. They arise from a dis- 
tinct consciousness of class-differences and of the hard- 
ship of the unpropertied class. Instead of the earlier 
demand for subsistence for all, they now demand a 
right to labor. Laborers claim the right to earn their 
living and resent the disgrace of becoming public wards. 
Here is a statement coming from this period and the 
clearest yet made of socialist doctrine. " Labor is for 
every one an essential condition of the social compact.' ' 

The general condemnation of private control and of 
the method of distribution on that basis shows the same 
attitude seen in the writings of Morelly. "The un- 
equal distribution of goods and of labor is the inex- 
haustible source of slavery and of all public calamities." 2 
In the decrees may be found statements illustrating the 
existing attitude toward ownership. "That the pro- 

1 "The Convention has adopted this idea by decreeing that all 
citizens who give up a day's labor to the important duties of political 
debates in their section, shall receive 40 sous a day to be paid by a 
tax on the rich." — Speech of Brissot, " Tracts," p. 60. # 

2 Buonarroti, op. cit., p. 118. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 28 1 

prietorship of all the riches of France resides essentially 
in the French people, which can alone determine the 
repartition of them." * 

The scheme set forth in this decree was decidedly of 
the Utopian type. It contained a plan whereby France 
was to establish a new social order. The past was to be 
ignored and abandoned, and a new social system was 
to issue. The purpose was revealed by the opening 
clause, "The people of Paris after having overthrown 
tyranny, using the right which it has received from 
nature, acknowledges and declares to the French people," 
etc. In theory the radical statesmen adhered to the 
law of nature ; they denied, however, that property was 
a natural right and proceeded to transfer it to a basis of 
positive law and make of it a civil right. 

3. Considerable effort has been put forth recently to 
show that there were no considerable liberal or social- 
istic tendencies in the thought of the Revolution. Two 
eminent scholars and competent critics have taken the 
attitude that the French revolutionary movement was 
rather reactionary than radical, as touching those main 
lines of teaching along which socialism moves. Griin- 
berg says that the influence of the socialist element in 
the Revolution was very slight ; 2 that most of the revo- 
lutionary conventions were not what to-day would be 

1 Decree of 1793. 

2 Grunberg, "Revue d'Economie Politique," 1891, p. 274. 



282 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

called even liberal. Lichtenberger has questioned if 
there was any large element of socialist sentiment active 
in France. 1 

It will probably be conceded, however, that the 
Revolution was marked, if not much influenced, by a 
group of very bold, able, and radical men who were 
attached to the propaganda of equality, communism, and 
radical social action in general. 2 Only the most un- 
certain speculation can be indulged in as to the influence 
they had on that revolutionary storm in the midst of 
which they found themselves. In conclusion, then, a 
brief review will be made of the leading ideas of that 
radical group whose works mark the close of this period 
of social theorizing. 

4. Of this group the one of whom least is known, yet 
whose mode of attack is most similar to that of Morelly, 
is Boissel. 3 His attack on existing society was most 
radical and comprehensive. He attacked the church 
for the idleness and hypocrisy of its clergy ; the govern- 
ment for the deception and despotism of its rule; re- 

1 Lichtenberger, "Le Socialisme et la Revolution francaise," pp. 

56-57- 

2 " . . . Mais le parasitisme de la proprie*te* oisive qui ne laisse au 
me*tayer accable que la moitie" des fruits y est denonce aussi." — Jaures, 
"Histoire Socialiste," Vol. I, p. 226. 

3 Very little literature is available relating to this obscure writer. 
Consult, F. Boissel, "Le Catechisme du genre humain," 1792; 
also article, Griinberg, " Francois Boissel," " Revue d'Economie 
Politique," 1891, pp. 273-286, 356-383. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 283 

ligion for its uselessness and its preposterous claims to 
supernatural origin, and the institutions of property and 
the family as being enemies of equality, liberty, and 
human welfare in general. 

Boissel is one of the first writers ! to recognize and 
call attention to the class-struggle in the modern mean- 
ing of the term. Earlier writers had, to be sure, seen 
the dividing line between rich and poor, and given two 
general classes based upon their economic conditions; 
these lines of cleavage were too obvious to escape atten- 
tion. The emphasis, however, so far laid upon any 
distinct economic class was very slight. Boissel gives 
clear evidence of this growing class-consciousness in 
his response to Robespierre in the Tribunal in 1793. 
" Robespierre, you read yesterday the 'Declaration of 
the Rights ' of man ; but I come to read the declaration 
of the rights of the Sans-Culottes. The Sans-Culottes of 
the French Republic recognize that all their rights come 
from nature, and anything contrary to these are not 

1 Boissel was born in 1728. Raised as a Jesuit, he was educated 
for the church, was later admitted to the bar, and was elected to the 
Parlement of Paris in 1753. At the age of sixty he entered with vigor 
into the Revolution. He joined the Jacobin party and became a 
radical of the extreme type. He was specially active in defence of 
the Jacobins against the aristocratic party. Some speeches and 
letters remain, but his chief work is "Catechisme du genre humain." 

See the Speech by Desmoulins, 1794, "Tracts." Here he briefly 
traces the slow rise of the lower-class to a consciousness of its exis- 
tence. 



284 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

binding. The rights of the Sans- Culottes consist in 
the faculty to reproduce, feed, and clothe themselves; 
in the enjoyment of the fruit of the earth, our common 
mother." * 

5. Boissel attacks property on the grounds of the 
natural rights argument. Every man has a natural 
right to existence. Any institution that prevents his 
enjoyment of this natural right is injurious and perni- 
cious. Property does thus interfere with the exercise of 
this right by those who have no property, denies them 
a right to existence, and hence contradicts natural law. 
It violates the natural right of the individual to his exist- 
ence. Boissel held, as did Morelly, that property was 
the cause of all the evils which curse mankind. " Every- 
where it gives rise to slavery and dependence of men 
among themselves." 2 

Boissel considers property as merely an historical 
category, a result of false historical development. It 
varies much in its content from age to age. It earlier 
had a much broader scope, including men, rivers, and 
seas. The tendency is for property to grow ever nar- 
rower in its reach. All property originated out of 
natural avidity, egoism, and all types of crime that are 
common to the natural constitution. 3 Religion, prop- 

1 Quoted by Griinberg, op. cit.y Vol. 5, p. 284. 

2 Griinberg, op. cit. y p. 364. 

8 "Le Catechisme du genre humain," p. 25. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 285 

erty, and the family, he holds, were created by man to 
serve supposedly the highest social ends. 

The final test, then, of these institutions is their social 
utility. When any such institution ceases to be a social 
benefit, it should be abandoned. 1 Any conclusion as to 
the nature of property and its service to society must be 
based upon experience alone. Experience shows that 
these institutions, especially private property, have been 
productive only of social evil. It is mathematically 
demonstrated, says Boissel, by the light of the experience 
of all the centuries, that the division of property and 
of land and the ownership of women have divided and 
impoverished the individuals and set one against an- 
other, and the laws are only citadels to keep the poor 
in subjection. 2 All are born with like needs, and the 
earth should be a table from which all should partake. 3 

Not only is property an evil in itself, but in the 
process of its acquisition social harmony is destroyed. 
It originated through egoism, insatiable desire, violence, 
and deception. 4 

Boissel opposes ownership in land on two grounds: 
because land in a particular manner is a free gift of 
nature, and also because land-ownership leads to a 
special type of social and political usurpation through 

1 Ibid., p. 6. 

2 " Le Code Civil de la France ou le Flambeau de la Liberte*," p. 9. 
8 Ibid., p. 10. 4 "Le Cat6chisme," pp. 92-93. 



286 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

the noble class. 1 His general protest, however, is 
against the system of property as being against the law 
of nature. It is, he says, a monstrosity. 2 Instead of 
furthering human progress it has checked and destroyed 
it. Nature knows no property rights. In civilization, 
through the struggle for property, the good qualities of 
man are perverted. 3 

6. As has been said, the denial of the old canons of 
distribution requires that new ones be set up. On this 
subject Boissel said very little, but this little is of a 
considerable interest. He has stated quite clearly a 
theory much used by later socialism ; namely, that each 
should share according to his needs. 4 

7. In his treatment of the real worth of culture and 
society at large, Boissel clearly shows the influence of 
Rousseau. The latter viewed private property as a 
main pillar in the social structure and overlooked its 
evils in view of the larger evil of civilization itself; so 
Boissel, while condemning property, had a still greater 
contempt for the social system with all its sham, im- 
posture, and fraud. 5 Society itself, based as it is upon 

1 " Le Cate*chisme," p. 93. 2 Ibid., p. 94. 3 Ibid., p. 96. 

4 "Je Pappelle antisocial, parcequ'il engendre l'intfret de*sas- 
treux de ne rapporter qu'a soi, ce qui ne doit etre rapporte qu'a la 
masse ge*nerale de la soci&e, pour etre distribue selon les besoins de 
ses membres ; ce qui rompt tous les liens et detruit Pessence ou les 
principes constitutif s de contrat social." — Ibid., pp. 89-90. 

6 Ibid., p. 97. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 287 

those institutions he condemns, is antisocial, mer- 
cenary, and homicidal. It is antisocial because the 
members of society and the social classes are placed in 
such sharp contrast to each other that true social life is 
impossible. It is homicidal because it arms the child 
against the parent and the brother against the brother. 
It is mercenary because the whole social process is 
carried on for a pecuniary purpose and none serves the 
other unless he expects a large recompense. 2 Society, 
as at present, organized, marked by these mercenary 
motives, is antisocial and results in a false distribution 
of social benefits. This form he calls " Soci6t£ leonine " ; 
that is, a society where one class lives by devouring 
another class. For society, property, the family, 
religion, and law, Boissel has about equal contempt. 
All have been organized to lend legitimacy to the 
usurpations of the strongest. 

He vigorously attacks the reasoning and conclusions 
of both Rousseau and Montesquieu. They presented 
mere palliatives instead of attacking and removing 
social wrongs. To Boissel these writers were but 
timid conservatives, constantly harping on the origin 
of evil, at the dawn of culture, but too cautious to offer 
any remedy. 1 This seems an interesting bit of con- 

1 Ibid., pp. 88 et seq. 

2 " II n'a ouvert les yeux que sur Porigine du mal sans s'occuper 
d'aucun remede curatif; car son contrat social ne presente que les 
palliatifs contre le vice radical des soci&£s humaines. ,, — Ibid., p. 98. 



288 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

temporary opinion on men usually in this day called 
radicals. 

Boissel was equally as radical in his attitude toward 
the family. He combined the two institutions — 
family and property — as one social wrong. In itself 
marriage is not an evil. It is because it helps to enlarge 
and perpetuate private property that it falls under the 
ban. The family, paternity, and the hereditary princi- 
ple — these lead to the perpetuity in property. 1 

Boissel seems to have no idea of the socializing force 
of the process of industry and the division of labor. All 
these activities, he seems to think, bring only warfare 
to society. 2 His plan for social reorganization pro- 
vided for a return to the conditions of primitive life 
when all the difficulties of this complex society would 
vanish, and simple but helpful association would 
prevail. 3 

8. Boissel held many ideas in common with Morelly. 
His attitude toward existing institutions was, however, 

1 " La voila, cette reponse de Phomme vraiment social, indicative 
du veritable ordre moral ainsi que des principes de P education sociale, 
qui auraient du et devraient encore aujourd'hui servir de base et 
de fondement a la civilisation de toutes les societes humaines, d'ou 
resulteraient les plus grands biens a la place des plus grands maux." 
— " Le Catechisme, " p. 99. 

2 " Cest que par le partage des terres les hommes n'ont fait que se 
diviser pour vivre chacun de son travail ; et que dans cette position, 
ils se sont armes et detruits les uns par les autres." — Ibid., p. 100. 

3 "Revue d'Economie Politique," 1891, p. 365. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 289 

more severe, and his attacks were more direct and bitter ; 
being nearer the Revolution, his ideas gathered force 
from the surrounding storm. He had the same destruc- 
tive purpose and would follow it with the same relentless 
directness. Like Morelly, he called attention to the 
need of constructive effort. He also drew up a " Code " 
for a reorganized France. He also was a constitution- 
maker. His "Code Civique" is patterned after the 
"Code" of Morelly, though it is less extensive. 1 In it 
may be read the same signs of hopefulness in the ability 
of the people to overturn the existing structure and to 
establish one better suited to their social needs. It was 
published when constitution-making was becoming a 
business in France, and contained many interesting 
political and social suggestions. 

With Boissel as with the other early writers there is 
an absence of such clear discussion of the productive 
process as socialists have done later. The influences 
which largely shaped his thought arose from agrarian 
France. 

9. The revolutionary agitator Babeuf has received 
somewhat more attention than the other writers here 
treated. The chief authority on his life and teachings 
is his compatriot Buonarroti, who, escaping execution 
for banishment in 1796 when Babeuf was beheaded, 

1 "Code Civique de la France," 1790. Copies of this are rare, one 
being in the National Library, Paris. 
U 



290 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

promised him he would write his biography. Accor- 
dingly this rather remarkable life of Babeuf was edited 
by Buonarroti in 1828. The most important docu- 
ments left by Babeuf resulted from his work as a 
journalist. After the organization of the " Society du 
Pantheon," sometimes known as "SocietedesEgaux " an 
organ of communication was decreed necessary. This 
means Babeuf supplied in the Tribune du Peuple. 
In this journal he set forth his most radical views on 
society and the means for its reorganization. In it he 
entered his protest against existing social institutions. 
The ideas advanced in the Tribune were, on the 
whole, sanctioned by the "Societe" and may be taken 
as the revolutionary programme of Babeuf and that 
radical group, who, as one of their number expressed 
it, believed that a mere change in the form of govern- 
ment was not sufficient ; but that the social conditions 
must be changed and founded upon justice and virtue. 
They were in the midst of the revolutionary conflict, 
aiming to direct the French people toward perfect 
equality. 1 

According to Babeuf and his associates, social 
organization is based upon a mutual compact. Each 
member entering this compact was equal with every 
other. In this primitive society there was absolute 
equality of wealth and of individual opportunity. All 

1 Buonarroti, op. cit., p. 33. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 29 1 

material goods were in this period divided equally 
among all members of the group. 1 In this theory 
society exists to prevent inequalities; under existing 
conditions it rests upon inequalities. 2 

To Babeuf the ideal of social organization demanded 
community of goods and of station. 3 Into the hands of 
the public power should be committed the task of 
maintaining this condition of equality ; this, they advised, 
should be done in France through the legislature. 4 
The club agreed that any condition was intolerable 
where this equality did not exist and where industry was 
not open to all. 5 The Society du Pantheon, which had 
accepted the radical views of Babeuf, considered private 
property the enemy of justice and order in France, and 
hoped to see disorder, misrule, and idleness destroyed 
when communism became dominant. 8 

1 Brissot de Warville, "Life of Brissot," p. 59. 

2 Buonarroti, op. cit., pp. 86-87. 3 Ibid., P- 87. 

4 " Detruire cette inegalite est done la tache d'un l^gislateur 
vertueux; voila le principe qui re'sulte de la meditation du comite"; 
comment parvenir?' , — Ibid., p. 85. 

5 "Et Pamener a proclamer que tous les hommes ont un droit e*gal 
aux productions de la terre et de Pindustrie." — Ibid., p. 85. Cf . Jaures, 
"Histoire Socialiste," Vol. I, p. 4. 

8 " Quant a la cause de ces desordres, on la trouvait dans Pin6galite* 
des fortunes et des conditions et en derniere analyse dans la pro- 
priete individuelle, par laquelle les plus adroits et les plus heureux 
depouillerent et depouillent sans cesse la multitude qui astreinte a 
des travaux longs et pe*nibles, mal nourrie, mal vetue, et mal logec, 
prive*e des jouissances qu'elle voit se multiplier pour quelques uns. 



292 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

In the Tribune Babeuf advocated that all labor 
must be regulated by law. None was to be exempt, and 
none should be overburdened. The feeble were not to 
be idle, but were to be relieved from heavy labor, and 
stronger members were to endure the greater hard- 
ships. 1 Such was the theory advocated by this organ 
of the most radical group of the revolutionary period. 
Most of it, no doubt, emanated from Babeuf ; at least he 
would have accepted it all. 

The theories of Babeuf are found principally in 
certain fragments discovered in his room at the time of 
his execution. 2 The chief classes which he distinguishes 
are the rich and the poor ; it is this difference in wealth 
that makes for social unrest. These social distinc- 
tions, he says, are pernicious and unnatural. 3 There 
are, he says, but two grounds for social distinction — 
age and sex. All having the same needs and the same 
powers, all should enjoy the same opportunities for 
culture and the same material support. There is only 

et minee par la misere, par Pignorance, par Penvie, et par le desespoir 
dans ses forces physiques et morales, ne voit dans la socie*te qu'un 
ennui." — Buonarroti, op. cit., pp. 84-85. 

1 Ibid., pp. 210-21 1. 

2 The inscriptions of these are : "Haute cour de justice ; Copie des 
pieces, saisies dans le local que Babeuf occupait lors de son arresta- 
tion a Paris, Frumaire, an V." 

3 " Qu'il cesse enfin ce grand scandale que nos neveux ne voudront 
pas croire? disparaissez enfin revoltantes distinctions de riches et 
de pauvres ; de grands et de petits, de maitres et de valets, de gou- 
vernants et de gouverne*s." — Ibtd., Vol. I, piece 52, p. 161. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 293 

one sun, and it shines alike on all ; why, then, should not 
all have the same means of life and the same pleasures ? ' 

Babeuf taught that in a primitive state of society 
men were all equal. Inequality arose with early 
civilization, and then this inequality was fixed and 
established in the civil law. To-day equality in theory 
is very well ; but so far, in practice, it is chimerical. All 
should be equal before the law, all being born equal ; 
unless they have signed away their liberty, they should 
be free and equal. 2 

On the validity of property Babeuf made a few very 
definite statements. To him the " Agrarian Law" was 
but a compromise and did not solve the problem. It 
was necessary to take a more radical course ; the only 
way to solve the social question permanently was to 
entirely abandon private property. All goods should 
be reduced to communal control. 3 Babeuf considered 

1 "lis se contentent d'un seul soleil et d'un meme air pour tous; 
pourquoi la meme portion et la meme qualite d'aliments ne suffiraient- 
elles pas a chacun d'eux?" — Ibid., piece 52. 

3 " Nous sommes tous egaux, n'est-ce pas ? ce principe demeure incon- 
teste*, parcequ'a moins d'etre atteint de folie on ne saurait dire s^rieuse- 
ment qu'il fait nuit quand il fait jour." — Ibid., piece 52, p. 160. 

3 "Nous tendons a quelque chose de plus sublime et de plus 
Equitable, le bien commun ou la communante des biens." — Ibid., 
p. 161. 

"Le droit de proprie'te* est celui qui appartient a tout citoyen de 
jouir et de disposer a son gre de ses biens, de ses revenus, du fruit 
de son travail et de sonindustrie." — Article 16, Declaration of Rights, 
1793. Article 18 forbade property in persons. 



294 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

the ownership of land particularly unfortunate. 1 Prop- 
erty in goods might be tolerated ; but private ownership 
in land, he held, was both unnatural and injudicious. 
Through the existence of private property there is 
created a leisure class, and the great majority are thus 
compelled to labor for the pleasure of the extreme 
minority. 

In his attack on society Babeuf shows clearly that he 
has the concrete case of France in view. The power of 
the great lords and of the propertied class he condemns 
as oppressive and intolerable. Too long the system of 
large holders had oppressed the great body of non- 
property holders. 2 

Of the same nature was the demand of the Insurrec- 
tionary Committee. It held in the first place that 
property rights were not based upon the law of nature, 
but were only a creation of the civil law. This being 
the case, the people could at any time change, revise, 
or abolish the rights of private property. It advised 
that ownership of goods be lodged in society, and that 
this should inhere inalienably in the whole people; 

1 "Plus de propriete individuelle des terres, la terre n'est a per- 
sonne. Nous rdclamons, nous voulons la jouissance communale 
des fruits de la terre. Les fruits sont a tout le monde." — Babeuf, 
"Manifesto," p. 152. 

2 "Assez et trop longtemps moins d'un million d'individus dispose 
de ce qui appartient a plus de vingt millions de leurs semblables, de 
leurs egaux." — Ibid., p. 152. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 295 

with them alone should reside the power to regulate 
employment and distribute the product of public in- 
dustry. 1 

As was the case with most of these writers, especially 
during the Revolution, Babeuf had complete faith in the 
possibility of his radical scheme. Before his execution 
he had seen the chief features of the plans of the " Moun- 
tain" carried into effect. The political aspects of the 
Revolution had clearly shown the possibility of very 
radical social changes. He died before the reaction 
toward monarchy under the Directory had set in, or 
the reversion to absolutism under the imperial regime of 
Napoleon had dimmed the red glory of the tragic revo- 
lutionary days. He carried to his grave the faith that 
those great social changes for which he had stood 
might yet be fulfilled. 2 

Babeuf held that society must always be troubled by 
dissensions so long as such disproportions exist between 
the resources of the different social classes. His 
treatment of the Revolution may be called a social- 
economic discussion. Many writers were occupied 

1 Buonarroti, op. cit., p. 207. 

2 " La Revolution, nous a donne preuves sur preuves que le peuple 
francais, peutetre un grand et vieux peuple, n'est-ce pas? Pour cela 
incapable d'adopter les plus grands changements dans ses institutions, 
de consentir aux plus grands sacrifices pour les ameliorer. N'a-t-il 
pastout change depuis 1789 excepte" cette seule institution de la pro- 
priete?" — "Manifesto," Vol. 1, piece 5. 



296 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

chiefly with the fiscal and political aspects of the age ; 
they were more interested in the government and in its 
structure, disregarding the social constitution. 1 Babeuf 
viewed the government merely as a means to the support 
and happiness of all the members of society. " Je vais 
plus loin que, soit que Pen combatte ou non, le sol d'un 
etat doit assurer Pexistence a tous les membres de cet 
etat." Babeuf sought to reestablish the equilibrium 
between the classes as regards wealth. This he be- 
lieved the only means whereby society might become 
safe and stable. The remedy for France was to be 
sought in the reform of the social rather than in that 
of the civil or political constitution. 2 

Babeuf was much of a dreamer. He was far less 
practical than those revolutionary spirits to whom 
freedom from political oppression meant so much and 
who hoped for readjustment through reforms in the 
government. He was therefore out of sympathy with 
those who had liberty as their ideal. To Babeuf these 
attempts at social amelioration through political reform 
were mere time-serving ; he abandoned these for a more 
far-reaching policy where complete equality as a basis of 
social reform was accepted. Babeuf idealized equality, 
forgetting, as did so many writers of his stamp, the idea 

1 Faure, "Le Socialisme pendant la Revolution francaise," p. 55. 

2 Ibid.y p. 51. Cf. Speeches of Desmoulins before the Convention, 
"Tracts." 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 297 

of liberty which had been the watchword of the Revo- 
lution. This doctrine of social equality was the direct 
contribution of these radicals to the Revolution. The 
idea of liberty belonged to the radical political parties. 
It was the latter and not the former that produced the 
French Revolution. In this sense the Revolution was 
not socialistic. 1 

10. Among those who, like Babeuf, considered social 
equality an essential to liberty and justice in France, 
was the radical theorist and doctrinaire, Saint- Just. He 
pointed out, though less explicitly, that the hopes for 
practical liberty and social justice without an economic 
reconstruction were groundless. He thought that if the 
Revolution was to work out the welfare of the lower- 
classes, radical social and industrial changes must be 
realized. 

The literature from the pen of Saint-Just is not 
extensive, and little of that is available. The most 

1 " All these rogues, swept by each other from the Jacobins, have 
at last made room for Danton, Robespierre, and Lindet, for those 
general deputies of every department, mountaineers of the Convention ; 
the bulwarks of the Republic whose thoughts have never wandered a 
moment from their object; the political and individual liberty of 
every citizen, a constitution worthy of Solon or Lycurgus, one in- 
divisible Republic; the splendor and prosperity of France, not an 
impracticable equality of property, but an equality of rights and 
happiness." — Speech of Camille Desmoulins, "Tracts." Cf. Speech 
of Mallet du Pan, Ibid., 1793. 



298 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

valuable source for his ideas is "Fragments sur les 
Institutions Republicaines." * 

The key to the teaching of Saint- Just is his treatment 
of what he considered the social unit under the present 
regime — the family. As a basis of the union of the 
sexes he placed conjugal love, and taught that a form 
of marriage exists wherever there is discovered spiritual 
affinity. In this respect he is at one with such English 
radicals as Godwin, Shelley, Byron, and the like. His 
theory meant the dissolution of family life as it exists in 
a regime where marriage is held sacred and property 
rights are inviolable. His theory of marriage resem- 
bles the common law marriage. 2 His teachings were, 
however, of a chivalrous kind. 3 As in the Spartan 
state barrenness was a cause for separation, so Saint- 
Just would allow divorce if there were no offspring for 
seven years. Children were after a certain age to be- 
come wards of the state. 4 From the fifth to the tenth 
year the state was to train the children that they might 
become proper citizens. 

1 It bears the inscription, " Ouvrage posthume de Saint-Just pre*- 
ce*de* d'une notice par Nodier, Paris, 1831." 

2 " L/homme et la f emme qui s'aiment sont e*poux, s'ils n'ont 
point d'enfants ils peuvent tenir leur engagement secret; mais si 
l'epouse devient grosse ils sont tenus de declarer qu'ils sont epoux au 
magistrat." — "Fragment," p. 60. 

8 " Celui qui frappe une femme est banni. Les femmes ne peuvent 
6tre censurees." — Ibid., p. 61. 

4 "L'enfant du citoyen appartient a la patrie." — Ibid. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 299 

11. The discussion of the family and its proposed 
reorganization naturally led Saint- Just to a brief 
consideration of economic questions. With an unstable 
form of family came the problem of the control of 
property. If the right of inheritance was not to be 
maintained, Saint- Just saw that with no succession in 
family lines either the state must be made the residuary 
claimant or else anarchy as to the control of property 
must ensue. He had, therefore, a rather unique plan 
whereby property would gradually revert to the state. 
In case husband and wife separated, an occurrence he 
seemed to expect, one-half the property escheated to 
society, the other half was to be divided between the 
separated parties. 1 Inheritance was to be tolerated in 
direct line alone. He denied emphatically the right of 
succession in collateral lines. 2 Saint- Just advocated 
the equal division of property among all the children, a 
proposition that became law in France in 1793, and 
which holds good to-day. 

Saint- Just condemned idleness as one of the evils in 

1 " S'ils se separent, la moitie de la communaute* leur appartient ; 
ils la partagent e"galement entre eux; Pautre moitie appartient 
aux enfants; s'il n'y a point d'enfants elle appartient au domaine 
public." — Ibid., p. 61. 

2 " L'here'dite* est exclusive entre les parents directs. Les parents 
directs sont les aines, le pere et la mere, les enfants, le frere et la 
sceur. Les parents indirects ne se succedent point. La Re*pu- 
blique succede a ceux qui meurent sans parents directs." — Ibid., 
p. 63. 



300 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

society and made no provision for a leisure class in his 
republic. He showed a partiality to agriculture and 
displayed * the influence of an agricultural environment 
and of physiocracy. One kind of labor uniformly 
required of all was farm labor. 

Saint- Just partook of the prevalent spirit of optimism, 
so characteristic of his country and of his age. In the 
future of society, if regulated according to his ideal, he 
had the fullest confidence. He thoroughly believed 
that society might develop objectively along lines of 
his abstract theories. 2 

12. It has been pointed out that a large part of the 
radical theories of Mably were provoked by the bitter 
discussion which he had with the great leader of the 
physiocratic school, Mercier de la Riviere, the most 
philosophic writer of that school. 3 Mably rather 
turned aside to take up this opposition to Mercier and 
answered him in a work of considerable strength. His 

1 "Tout propri&aire qui n'exerce point de me'tier, qui n'est point 
magistrat, qui a plus de vingt-cinq ans est tenu de cultiver la terre 
jusqu'a cinquante ans." — " Fragment," p. 70. 

2 Kritschewsky, "J. J. Rousseau und Saint -Just; ein Beitrag zur 
Entwicklungsgeschichte der socialpolitischen Ideen der Monta- 
gnards," 1895, p. 41. 

3 "L'ordre naturel et essentiel des societe*s," 1767. Cf. Higgs 
"The Physiocrats," six lectures on the French economists of the 
eighteenth century; "Revue Sociale Catholique," pp. 256 et seq.; 
Legrand, R., "Richard Cantillon, un Mercantiliste Pre*curseur des 
Physio crates"; Vogel, "Over de Leer der Physiokraten," 1859. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 30 1 

main work had been devoted to the larger field of history 
and jurisprudence, in which sphere he did rather an 
extensive service. The general ability of the man, 
however, did much to give popularity to his views, and he 
received considerable attention in his immediate age. 1 

Mably, then, like many of his day and school, was 
inclined at first to the ancient mode of thought and was a 
very devoted student of history. 2 While in his writings 
there can be traced his opposition to the institutions of 
his age, it was after the dogmatic work of Mercier 
defending the system of physiocracy and in particular 
the institution of private property that Mably took up 
a most radical propaganda. 3 

The leading features of interest in the career of 

1 His most important works are: "Doutes proposes aux Philoso- 
phies economiques, sur P >rdre naturel et essentiel des Societes poli- 
tiques," 1768; "De la Legislation ou Principes des Lois"; "Ob- 
servations sur PHistoire de France," 3 vols.; "Principes des Nego- 
tiations pour servir d'Introduction au Droit Public de PEurope," etc. 

2 On Mably see Berenger, " Esprit de Mably et de Condillac rela- 
tivement a la morale et a la politique," 1789; Le C. Lavacher, 
"De Phomme en societe; complement a la legislation de Mably," 
2 vols., 1804. 

3 Mably was born in Grenoble in 1709. He was determined for 
the church orders and at an early age began the study of theology. 
Like others of his age, as Voltaire, Meslier, and the like, he became 
dissatisfied with clerical teachings and practice, and abandoned the 
church to take part in the more stirring thought and activity of 
society and the state. In his history of France he showed marked 
ability as a historian, and in his treatise on the public law of Europe is 
seen another side of this versatile character. He died in 1785. 



302 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

Mably were his extreme boldness, his great logical 
power, and the ability he displayed in his struggle with 
the physiocratic school, — a fact which alone would have 
brought any man to prominence. Mably was a con- 
temporary of Morelly, and while he lacked in construc- 
tive genius, surpassed that writer in destructive criti- 
cism. The occasion of Mably's attack on society in 
general and on property in particular was the ap- 
pearance of the physiocratic defence of property and of 
the existing order in "L'Ordre Naturel et Essentiel de 
Societe" from the pen of the ablest physiocrat, Mercier 
de la Rivifere. To this Mably made reply in his 
"Doutes proposes aux Philosophes economiques sur 
TOrdre naturel et essentiel des Societes politiques." 
This appeared in 1768, after the writings of Rousseau 
and Morelly. It was in response to these that Mercier 
had written his defence of the existing regime. 

Equally as suggestive of the new and destructive of 
the old order were the ideas advanced by Mably. 
Mably was interested, as were Morelly and Rousseau, 
to find the causes of social evil and the means for their 
removal. With them he held the source of social ills 
to be private property. Inequality and property he 
associated as cause and effect. Both equality and 
communal right to material goods he called natural 
rights. Both of these man lost when he abandoned 
natural society. Both inequality and its corollary, 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 303 

private property, are the result of convention; they 
are neither the natural nor essential basis of society, as 
Mercier had claimed ; neither are they to be tolerated 
on grounds of expediency, as had been taught by 
Rousseau. 

Like Morelly, Mably was specific and accurate in his 
analysis. He attempted to discover and point out the 
real relation between property and inequality. This 
lies chiefly in the advantages the possession of wealth 
gives the holder; advantages in education and in 
culture and in those things which lend distinction and 
power. Here originate social classes, and here the 
pernicious influences of inequality begin. 

While Mably thus theoretically condemned property 
and the evils which flow from it, in practice he was 
moderate like Rousseau. At the time he wrote, he 
believed these institutions still necessary to maintain 
the social order ; at the same time he held that they were 
not necessarily the final order. The only actual change 
he advised was a limitation upon the amount of land 
any one could hold. 1 A. Franck points out the relation 
of Mably to Morelly in these concise words : " Mably 
has the glory of having given to communism its most 
concise and logical form; but two things remained to 
be done : to give to the theory the imperative character 
of law, or to embody it in the form of a code and to put 

1 "Doutes proposes," etc., p. 162. 



304 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

it into action. The first was done by Morelly, the 
second by Babeuf." * 

13. The theories set forth by Linguet are suggestive 
of the same radical social thought, although his writings 
were not generally of a revolutionary color. He was 
a poet, dramatist, historian, journalist, and a thorough 
student of the law. 2 Lichtenberger considers Linguet 
as a very direct and important forerunner of modern 
socialism. Much of his thought is not, however, con- 
nected very closely with the theories here discussed. 
The most radical parts deal with the problem of prop- 
erty. Less revolutionary than Morelly or Mably, his 
method of attack was similar. 

Property lies at the basis of extravagance and luxury 
on one hand and of poverty and squalor on the other. 
He says it is the wealth arising through the accumulation 
of private property that creates an idle rich class, who 
live from the labor of the less fortunate class. 3 Prop- 

1 Franck, " Communisme juge par Phistoire," Paris, 1849, p. 59. 

2 Linguet was born at Rheims in 1736. He held a place of note 
as a writer and legal authority during the closing half of the eigh- 
teenth century. His leading work was "Theories des lois civiles; 
ou Principes Fondamentaux de la Societe," London, 1767. Cf. Hugo 
und Stegmann, "Handbuchdes Socialismus," pp. 472 et seq.; Cruppi, 
"Un Avocat journaliste au i8 mc Siecle, Linguet," 1895; Monselet, 
"Les Oublies et les Dedaignes," Alencon, 1857, pp. 1-47; Lichten- 
berger, "Le Socialisme Utopique," pp. 75-131. 

8 " L'accroissement de ces biens lui fait imaginer les distinctions. 
II Pamene a desirer le superflu et son opulence lui donne le moyen 
de le payer." — "Theories des lois civiles," Paris, 1767, Ch. III. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 305 

erty fosters luxury, creates class-distinctions, and, mak- 
ing possible a leisure class, compels labor to bear 
their burdens. 1 He does not, however, see this as the 
worst evil. Property is injurious to the entire society. 
Through luxury and extravagance the population is 
lessened and society is weakened. He attacks private 
property from the social view point and sees the general 
interests at war with the interests of the dominant 
social classes. 2 Property he considers the basis of 
society as at present organized. To upset property 
would mean to revolutionize society. Property, like 
government, is a necessary evil. Law he defines as 
the protector of those who have against those who 
have not. 3 Linguet saw much as did Harrington a 
vital union between property and a stable society. 
He justifies private property because it saves society 
from that anarchy from which it has emerged. 4 

14. The writer of this period who saw most clearly 
the economic causes which operate in history in general 
and which caused the French Revolution in particular, 
was Barnave. 5 As a necessary outgrowth of this view 

1 Ibid., Ch. VI. 2 Ibid., Ch. VIII. 

3 "Elles tendent a mettre Phomme qui possede du superflu a 
couvert des attaques de celui qui n'a pas le necessaire." Ibid., p. 196. 

4 Ibid., p. 198. 

5 As is the case with other authors here noted, Barnave has been 
very much neglected. He was born at Grenoble in 1761 and suf- 
fered death by the guillotine in 1793. He was a lawyer by profession. 
Barnave was an ardent follower of Montesquieu and received much 



306 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

of history he also saw the rise of the classes and dis- 
cussed the part which economic changes have played 
in history. In this respect he bears very close resem- 
blance to Marx. To M. Jaurfes * the credit is largely 
due of discovering Barnave and placing him in his 
proper position regarding the theory of his own day 
and of later times. 2 

Barnave was more than a mere political agitator 
or narrow-minded revolutionist. His activities and in- 
terests had marked him as a man with large powers and 
great possibilities surpassed by Mirabeau alone among 
the revolutionary leaders. His knowledge of the 
colonial situation, of the larger aspects of French ad- 
ministration, and of the operations in the local and 
national legislative bodies especially fitted him to take 
the economist's view of the great Revolution. 3 Jaurfes 

of his inspiration from him. He was a member of the estates-general 
of 1789 and president of the Assembly in 1790. At first a radical 
democrat, the drift of the Revolution of 1791 convinced him of the 
need of a more conservative course into which he attempted to lead 
the Assembly. He pleaded the inviolability of the king's person in the 
Convention of 1792. 

1 Jaures, "Histoire Socialiste," Vol. I, pp. 97 et seq. 

2 The writings of Barnave were collected and published in 1843 by 
Berenger in four volumes. His most important contribution for 
purposes of this essay was " Introduction a la Revolution f rancaise." 
Quite a number of pamphlets have been left by Barnave on practical 
subjects concerning finance, colonies, and administration. 

8 See de Lomenie, "Esquisses Historiques et Litteraires"; 
Barnave, "Rapport fait a P Assemble, sur les Colonies," 1791; 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 307 

says of Barnave, that he most clearly stated the princi- 
ples on which the Revolution advanced, in which he 
discerned those economic causes which were later so 
much emphasized by Marx. He also claims that 
Marx has ignored in him a most important precursor. 1 
During the Revolution he was on the side of the third 
estate, voted with them, spoke for them, and when con- 
ferences were held, he was named as the conferee. His 
attitude was rather that of the practical statesman and 
reformer than of the radical doctrinaire. 2 Of all the 
revolutionary group, with perhaps the exception of 
Mirabeau, Barnave was the most conservative, cautious, 
and useful. Although at first on the side of the radicals, 
he advised measures of practical reform which tended 
to allay the bitterness of the classes and to moderate 
the fury of the revolutionary conflict. 

" Proces- Verbal de V Assemble Nationale; 15 Juillet," 1791; 
Berenger, " Notice historique sur Barnave " in ^CEuvres de Barnave," 
1843. Attention has already been called to the fact that the period 
of Marx saw a revival of interest in the prerevolutionary writings. 
This edition of Barnave's works, appearing in 1843, is another illus- 
tration of this. Buonarroti's life of Babeuf came earlier, 1828. 

la Histoire Socialiste," Vol. I, pp. 97-98. Berenger, op. cit., 
Introduction. 

2 He opposed the absolute veto of the king ; advocated the division 
of France into departments and the enlargement of the local powers ; 
he was in favor of the introduction of the trial by jury for both criminal 
and civil cases. Over the powers of the king as to war and peace 
occurred the debate between Mirabeau and Barnave which alone 
would have made either man famous. 



308 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

As has been already pointed out, certain very funda- 
mental differences in view mark the earlier as dis- 
tinguished from the modern socialism. Among these 
none is more important than the recognition of the 
evolutionary nature of society and the necessary belief 
that social reforms, if carried through, must move 
slowly. To this proposition Barnave clearly committed 
himself. This fact appears both in his activities in the 
national assembly and in his writings touching this 
subject. 1 

Of the influences of the external environment and 
of the dominant cultural forces on the social and 
political forms, Barnave was completely convinced. 
Power in government and social prestige depend, he 
says, upon a certain conjunction of outward circum- 
stances, and are largely independent of the will of the 
different individuals. Society develops according to 
certain natural laws, and beyond these the controlling 
power of the social will cannot go. 2 

According to Barnave the chief external factor deter- 
mining social and political development is the economic 
condition. His clear recognition of this principle in 

1 "Ainsi les gouvernements changent de forme quelquefois par 
une progression douce et insensible, et quelquefois par de violentes 
commotions." — " Introduction a la Revolution francaise," p. 3. 

2 " C'est la nature des choses, la periode sociale ou le peuple est 
arrive, la terre qu'il habite, ses richesses, ses besoins, ses habitudes, 
ses mceurSj qui distribuent le pouvoir. ,, — Ibid., p. 3. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 309 

general makes his connection with Marx apparent; 
while his attitude toward property and its relation to 
human progress shows his sympathy with the authors 
earlier discussed. 

The theory of Barnave as to social origins is almost 
identical with that of Morelly and Rousseau. Early 
society is marked by communism as to property and 
equality and liberty as to person. At first there may be 
some ownership of implements, but the land is held 
entirely in common. 1 

With Morelly, Barnave states that the chief dynamic 
social force is the increase of population. As this 
multiplies, new needs present themselves, the individual 
begins to feel his insufficiency, and necessity forces or 
induces him to seek the cooperation of others similarly 
situated. In this social cooperation society originates. 
It will be observed that the writers here examined hold 
that the economic needs lie at the foundation of the 
social structure. Barnave holds thus far to an economic 
theory as to social development. He also teaches, and 
in this he differs from Hobbes, that not fear, but the 
mutual feeling of cooperation and a need of social aid 
in economic endeavors lead men to enter society. 

But this increase of population and its accompanying 
growth of social life has another outgrowth of the utmost 
importance in the process of social movements. At 

1 "La terre entiere est commune a tous." — Ibid., p. 5. 



310 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

this stage appears the system of property. At first 
developing slowly with a nomad people, it takes on a 
very great, indeed a commanding, importance when the 
tribes become fixed to the soil. 1 Because of this, men 
abandon their freedom in two ways. In the first place, 
they submit themselves to nature and the tyranny of 
her laws, losing that freedom marking life by the 
chase. 2 

More important, however, than this unavoidable 
subjection to nature through this industrial change, is 
the rise of social classes due to the equally inevitable 
growth of inequality, based upon economic differences. 
Barnave emphasizes the fact that with the growth of 
landed property, inequalities came to be fixed in fact 
and law, and the basis for permanent social classes and 
class-distinctions was laid. Barnave emphasizes the 
very significant fact that inequality fixes itself not alone 
in the laws and institutions of the country, but in the 
nature of men. The original feeling of independence 
and of self-sufficiency passes away, and the condition 
of poverty reacts upon the individual character. No- 
where is the English adage more clearly stated, that the 

1 "Enfin, les besoins de la population s'accroissant toujours, 
Fhomme est oblige de chercher sa nourriture dans le sein de la terre." 
— " Introduction a la Revolution francaise," p. 6. 

3 "Le cultivateur sacrifie ainsi toute Pind£pendance que la nature 
lui a donnee; le sol Penchaine parce qu'il le fait vivre." — Ibid., 
p. 9. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 311 

" destruction of the poor is their poverty." ! Such was 
the theory of Barnave explaining the rise of inequality 
and the manner whereby it perpetuates itself in society. 

With equal clearness he points out, how, under the 
pressure of economic necessity society passes from one 
industrial stage to another. If Barnave was a precursor 
of Karl Marx in his social views, and especially in the 
emphasis he placed on the influence of the economic 
factor, he even more clearly anticipated Frederick List 2 
in stating the theory of the evolution of society through 
a series of industrial stages. He discusses society as 
it advances, under the pressure of increasing population, 
through four stages : the hunting, agricultural, agri- 
cultural-manufacturing, and the commercial stages. 
The classification by List is somewhat more complex ; 
it is no more clearly conceived nor logically stated. 
Throughout the discussion Barnave holds to the idea 
that society constantly unfolds under the pressure of 
economic necessity. 3 

As a result of this rather interesting analysis of 
society Barnave reaches some important conclusions. 

1 " Enfin dans cet age de la socie*te" le pauvre n'est pas moins as- 
servi pas son ignorance; il a perdu cette sagacite* naturelle, cette 
hardiesse d' imagination qui caracte*risent Phomme errant dans les 
bois." — Ibid., p. 10. 

1 Frederick List, " Das Nationale System der Politischen Oekono- 
mie," 1845, Ch. 13. 

• " Introduction a la Revolution francaise," pp. 10-13. 



312 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

His statement of the manner in which the propertied 
class captured the organs of control and turned them to 
their own account could scarcely be improved upon. 1 
In like manner, he has expressed the theory of a class- 
struggle and the actual formation and destruction of 
classes in modern Europe as a result of the changes in 
the control over economic goods. In the very midst of 
the great revolutionary struggle, Barnave saw the rise 
of the democracy and of a new aristocracy. These he 
interpreted, however, not as political but as economic 
phenomena. 

To him the great Revolution was an economic and 
not a political event. As property shifted from land 
into capital, the old landed aristocracy lost its control, 
and the equilibrium of power thus disturbed sought and 
found a new centre in the rising democracy which had 
come into prominence through this great industrial 
change. 2 Through the centuries these changes had 
been in progress until the growth of capital had made 
the supremacy of the landed interests no longer pos- 

1 " Comme, avant Pepoque ou le commerce existe, Paristocratie 
est, par la nature des choses, en possession du pouvoir, c'est elle alors 
qui fait les lois, qui cree les prejuges et qui dirige les habitudes des 
peuples; elle pourra balancer longtemps, par Penergie des insti- 
tutions, Pinfluence des causes naturelles." — "Introduction a la 
Revolution francaise," p. 13. 

2 " Les communes acquerant des richesses par le travail ont achete* 
d'abord leur liberte et ensuite une portion des terres et Paristocratie 
a perdu successivement son empire et ses richesses." — Ibid., p. 19. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY RADICALS 313 

sible. It was when the balance of power fell on the 
side of capital that the French Revolution was made 
possible and necessary. 1 

1 " C'est cette progression, commune a tous les gouvernements 
europeens, qui a prepare* en France une revolution democratique, et 
Pa fait gclater a la fin du XVIII mc siecle." — Ibid., p. 20. 



CHAPTER IX 

CONCLUSION 

Social inequalities, political injustice, and class- 
distinctions have, in a variety of forms, marked the 
progress of human society. Many causes have con- 
tributed to the spirit of unrest and to conflict of interests. 
To what extent these unfortunate conditions rest on 
economic maladjustment can be only roughly esti- 
mated. It was a characteristic of the writers before 
the French Revolution to attribute many social and polit- 
ical wrongs to unwise economic arrangements. Their 
proposed remedy would be called socialistic because it 
hoped for amelioration through changes in the economic 
system. The chief feature of these changes was the 
extension of public power into the sphere of industry 
before occupied by the individual. 

Socialism now as then is called upon to meet and 
solve some very difficult problems. It is necessary to 
consider the question whether socialism is adapted to 
human nature, and whether there are any permanent, 
enduring qualities in man. It will not do to assume 
that society has always been dominated by the economic 
motive nor that man has always been mercenary in 
spirit. Outside the sphere of predatory life there is 

3*4 



CONCLUSION 3 1 s 

probably much ground for Spencer's subdivision of 
society into militant and industrial society. Many eras 
in history might be pointed out in which other motives 
than the economic seem to have dominated. 1 It is 
highly probable that socialists have overestimated the 
completeness of their analysis and that great dis- 
appointments might follow socialistic experiments. 
Although modern socialism has become more scientific 
in spirit and historical in method, there still linger 
many suggestions of its origin in the sentimental the- 
ories of the past. There is still regnant a spirit of 
unreasoned hopefulness in the omnipotence of the 
social will. The vicious assumption still persists that a 
condition of social quietism can be reached and main- 
tained. 2 Such a condition is neither hoped for nor 
expected by social students ; for the questions concern- 
ing the reconciliation of socialism and evolution dis- 
cussed by Haeckel and Virchow in 1877 have not been 
answered. In the light of evolutionary teaching, it is 
not at all clear how society devoid of conflict can make 
progress. If progress depends upon selection and this 
is conditioned upon conflict, socialism, however hu- 
mane, seems to be unfavorable to progress. 3 Socialists 

1 Peixotto, op. cit., p. 300, note. 

2 For a discussion of this see Bernstein, "Voraussetzungen des 
Socialismus," pp. 169 et seq. 

s Mackaye, "The Economy of Happiness," N. Y., 1907, discusses 
the chances of a happy adjustment of social relations under another 
regime. 



316 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

themselves must regard the very reasonable fear that 
society might stagnate. There is danger that a scheme 
of mutuality would transform society into a mere 
nerveless mass, — inert, unprogressive, moribund, and 
like feudalism lead nowhere but to its own destruction. 

Furthermore, as socialism moves from the realm of 
Utopias, vague theories, and pleasing generalizations 
into a sphere of practical schemes and attempted re- 
form, the fact of the changing nature of industrial 
society presents itself to confuse and complicate. 
Socialists themselves have not been blind to those 
changes. Indeed, they have been most persistent in 
pointing out the fact that society progresses in cycles 
as classes become endowed with new economic powers. 
Landlordism gives way to capitalism and the feudal 
" Aristocracy' ' to the " Bourgeoisie." * This class, in 
turn, is to be overthrown as the proletariat gains on 
one hand and the giant industry on the other. 

Equally great changes take place in the industrial 
methods and in the forms of industrial organization. 
Manufacture and commerce have come to take the place 
of agriculture as dominant facts in industrial life. 
The household has yielded to the factory in the sphere 
of manufacture, and handicraft to labor with the 
machine. Instead of goods made to special order, 
commodities are manufactured for the general market. 

1 Jaures, "Histoire Socialiste," Vol. I, pp. 96 et seq. 



CONCLUSION 317 

Prices earlier based upon agreement between consumer 
and producer were for a century settled by competition, 
but owing to vast changes they are now fixed by con- 
tract between producers under conditions of partial 
monopoly, or by the manufacturers where the monopoly 
is complete. 

As a result of these changes socialism has been com- 
pelled to abandon many of its conclusions, and has 
seen many of its earlier hopes shattered and its as- 
sumptions disproved. At first it waged war on free 
competition and saw in this industrial anarchy in 
society one of the main causes of its protest. The 
past quarter of a century has seen the system of com- 
petitive industry disappear while a new and worse enemy 
in the form of monopoly has appeared. With the 
enormous widening of the markets during the first 
quarter of the nineteenth century, the hopes of cosmo- 
politan industry and world -markets under the regime of 
free trade seemed to be realized. With the rebirth of 
nationalism,with the Civil War in America, the unifica- 
tion of Italy, and the creation of the German Empire 
and the consequent isolation of France, these hopes 
have been overthrown. With the growth of this new 
nationalism and the attendant spirit of mercantilism, 
shown in all important lands, new difficulties present 
themselves. The first of these was seen in the seventies, 
when, as a result of the Franco- German War, the famous 



318 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

"International" was hopelessly wrecked, and again the 
dreams of a world-wide brotherhood were shattered. 
Later examples of the influence of this mercantile 
spirit are seen as western nations, in their struggle for 
markets, cling with tenacity to the existing type of 
organization lest any change in method destroy their 
power; while new lands, like Japan, adopt the most 
advanced form of capitalistic industry. 

Moreover, with the growth of the machine-industry 
has come a minute division of labor. The effects of this 
change, discussed ever since the classical analysis of 
Adam Smith, have not yet been shown in their social 
bearing; for this subdivision of labor has developed a 
vast difference of skill among laborers and a correspond- 
ing variety of wage. As the wages vary so vary the 
standards, and this, as has been said, is destructive of 
class-sympathy and of class-struggle. Not only do the 
categories of skilled and unskilled labor play a most 
important role in trade-union organization, but they 
must soon be a cause of apprehension for socialist 
leaders. 

In this connection attention is called to the larger 
aspects of this division of labor. No fact is more 
apparent nor has any been more fortunate, than 
the tendency of social institutions to develop along the 
line of their separate functions. From the age of 
Thomas More on, this growth of division of labor is 



CONCLUSION 319 

manifest. The power to dominate the beliefs of men 
and to deal with problems of morals has gradually been 
relegated to the sphere of the church. Slowly did the 
church abandon those claims so long urged to govern 
in civil affairs, leaving a certain area undisputed to the 
state. As a part of this same movement the individual 
grew in power as an economic unit, and as individualism 
developed, he gained control over his industrial activity. 
In so far, then, as progress involves this growth of the 
individual, socialism is reactionary and retrogressive. 
It conflicts with the century-old tendency toward 
division of labor in this enlarged social sense. It 
totally confuses the spheres of civic and economic 
activity, degrading the state from the high purpose to 
which it was born, to govern in the former, and denying 
to man at once the privilege and responsibility to work 
out unhindered his economic career in the latter. 

Karl Marx was the last and the greatest philosopher 
of socialism. In his masterpiece, "Capital," theo- 
rizing, both sentimental and scientific, finds its climax 
and its close. In his activities as an organizer and 
agitator he came into contact with those economic 
facts with which socialism was forced to deal and thus 
connects the old with the new socialism. To these 
mighty changes so soon to disturb industrial society, 
the earlier theorists paid little heed. They were ideal- 
ists and cared little for the hard social facts which 



320 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

their followers must meet. So long as socialism was 
academic this was well ; when, in the fifties, it became a 
class-movement at the hands of Marx and Lassalle, the 
principles which had grown into a cult and those 
economic doctrines on which they were based came to 
be severely tried. 

Among those principles one of the most important 
was that the effects of the socialistic propaganda were to 
reach all lands, and this industrial brotherhood was to 
embrace all mankind. The cosmopolitan nature of the 
teachings of More and Campanella has been pointed 
out. Utopia was a microcosm, the prototype of a 
perfect society, where all would be free and where 
toleration would be complete. The practical applica- 
tion of this theory was the " International" of Karl 
Marx. These hopes, however, were disappointed in 
the seventies because of national enmities ; while to-day 
there appears the still more difficult problem of treating 
the different races which press themselves on the west- 
ern world. As the practical questions growing out of 
increased immigration knocked the idealism out of 
early American democracy and placed laws on the 
statute books limiting certain races from entering, so 
has the same development of the race problem wrecked 
the liberal cosmopolitan pretensions of early socialism. 
The recent drift of affairs shows that socialism is 
limited to the white race at least, with still narrower 



CONCLUSION 321 

bounds possible. At this point the idealism of socialism 
has broken down, regardless of what effects may follow 
as to its practical programme. As a system of selfish- 
ness it may still persist; its altruistic claims it will 
probably abandon. 1 

It is even true that within the national groups them- 
selves the unprecedented growth of cities, with their 
giant activities, threatens to still further break down 
the social solidarity. The necessities of the case leading 
to the ownership of the public utilities may be the 
entering wedge for a large socialistic control, but the 
effects of this on the growth of socialism may be very 
doubtful. Municipal socialism has been carried far in 
France, and its sentiment gains ground rapidly in 
America; yet such development seems to conflict with 
the larger intent of early socialism. Not only is this so, 
but it is very uncertain whether the centralized type of 
government and the concentrated form of control now 
on the increase are compatible with the drift socialism 
is taking in the direction of social democracy. 

While this seems a reversion toward the ideals ap- 
pearing in prerevolutionary socialism, yet the great 
political changes here suggested have compelled the 
abandonment of one of its most distinctive principles ; 
namely, its absolute monarchic nature. No ques- 
tion has more severely shaken the system than 

1 Clark, " The Labor Movement in Australasia," N. Y., 1906, p. 135. 
Y 



322 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

the attempt to reconcile the spirit of early socialism 
with the spirit of democracy. The career of the Social 
Democracy in Germany, marked by the struggle to 
impress this new spirit on socialism, clearly illustrates 
how the changes of the past century have transformed 
the early method of socialism. The "prince" and the 
" hierarchy' ' adhered to in the earlier centuries must 
yield to the decentralized rule of the people as "social 
democracy" collides with "state socialism." 

It is owing also to this growth of democracy that the 
radical nature of prerevolutionary socialism has been 
much modified. Democracy means the coming to 
power of the lower classes without disturbing the 
existing economic equilibrium. It makes possible the 
participation of the lower classes in new privileges and 
rights without altering, in the least, industrial relation- 
ships. Two results have followed, both of the first 
importance to the radical type of socialism. Some 
have been satisfied with the form of power though they 
may lack the substance and be in no better condition 
economically. Another and far larger class uses the 
new power thus given it to ameliorate conditions and 
improve that social system it earlier was bent on destroy- 
ing. Hence, there is lacking to-day that singleness of 
purpose so characteristic of prerevolutionary theorists, 
and the reformer is more in evidence than the revo- 
lutionary; while the programmes of modern socialist 



CONCLUSION 323 

congresses provide for a most general scheme of political 
and social reform. 

Indeed, the danger seems imminent that socialism will 
lose its distinctive features and be merged into very 
liberal reform parties. The bitterness of the debate 
between Bebel and Jaures in the Brussels congress 
shows how seriously this fear is entertained by the 
ablest representatives of socialism to-day. For, as 
Proudhon said, if socialism means merely reform, then 
are we all socialists. Instances are not wanting to show 
that radical action was averted by the adoption of 
reform measures ; this was the case in France in the 
great Revolution and again in 1848. Bismarck took 
the wind out of the socialists' sails in Germany by 
yielding to various reforms. While to the more cynical 
critic many of these measures of aid and reform may 
suggest the creation of a " Benevolent Feudalism," 
still there are many who believe moderate reform is 
worth striving for, while many others do not object to 
being taken care of. While this was not the chief point 
at issue between the radical Lassalle and the conserva- 
tive Schultze-Delitzsch, yet the danger of the reformer's 
cutting the ground from under the socialist has been 
apparent since then. It is over the nature of the 
programme which socialists are to follow in this con- 
nection that the threatening break has come in the 
party in Germany, the injurious effects of which are 
apparent to-day. 



324 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

The problem, however, in its widest extent involves 
the relationship of the modern trades-unions to social- 
ism. The fate of socialism in the near future at least, 
either as a system of faith or active propaganda, depends 
largely on the attitude which these powerful organiza- 
tions of laborers assume. Prerevolutionary social- 
ism, and indeed socialism down to very modern times, 
had no conflict either in theory or practice with a rival 
system. Its exponents were the only representatives of 
the submerged classes, and the contradictions between 
the radical socialist and the practical reformer were not 
at all apparent until agitation, due partly to itself and 
partly to rival organizations, opened a positive cam- 
paign for the betterment of the class in question. 

Of the attempts made to carry out these ideal schemes 
little can be said. Many attempts have been made to 
realize the early dreams through the organization of 
ideal communities. The only one of any importance, 
the Jesuit experiment in Paraguay, has been already 
discussed. The more recent ones have been on a much 
smaller scale and have served no purpose but to show 
how futile such attempts are, or to give social students 
and dilettantes in reform the opportunity to establish 
social experiment stations. Undertaken by impractical 
dreamers with impossible theories, they have had no 
more influence on the existing social system than had 
the republic of Saint Marino on the monarchic system 



CONCLUSION 325 

of Europe. These communities have been marked by 
interesting though totally unimportant features, such as 
the sensational communism of Oneida, the puerile 
mutualism of Amana, or the travesty on finance of Zion 
City. These experiments from Icaria to the present 
have been viewed with mingled feelings of sympathy 
and distrust. There has been radical legislation in 
some places, such as that in Australasia ; but these 
movements are free from the unworkable plans here 
discussed. 

The opposition to property, both individual and 
corporate, which More entertained, has been evident since 
in a variety of forms. It appeared in the French Revo- 
lution in the radical theories discussed above and in 
the milder protest against the lands of the clergy. Ben- 
tham argues very clearly and forcefully against the right 
of inheritance, especially in collateral lines. Marx and 
Engels in their Communist Manifesto took a very radi- 
cal stand, much modified by their later utterances, in 
which capital alone falls under the ban. Proudhon's 
doctrine condemns property in a still more severe 
manner. Modern socialism in its programmes still 
attacks vigorously the right of property, though current 
opinion is by no means at one on this proposition. 

The effect of the increase of the number of property- 
holders especially among laborers has probably strength- 
ened sentiment in its favor. The opposition aroused 



326 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

because of the abuses of corporate wealth is largely 
neutralized by the increased influence of small stock- 
holders. 1 The movement toward municipal ownership 
in the cities has chiefly to do with franchises and does 
not at all prove that the opposition to private property 
is growing. It has, with the inheritance tax, principally 
a fiscal significance. The attack on landed property, 
led in America by Henry George and in England by 
Mr. Wallace, which took the form of land nationaliza- 
tion, arose from the unfortunate use made of public 
lands in this country and the hated landlordism in 
England. The movement in both countries was based 
upon passing phenomena and should not be interpreted 
as directed in principle against property. 

The attacks on the family so fully developed in the 
prerevolutionary writings have, it may be said, very 
much subsided since the Revolution. Much has been 
written recently bearing upon this question, but chiefly 
by cynical critics, sensational writers, and social students 
whose works are largely academic in their appeal un- 
less some oversensitive person feels either offended or 
frightened, and by opposition gives such works general 
notoriety. Prophecies of the decline of the family are 
based generally either upon unfortunate personal 
experiences or statistics taken from divorce courts and 
totally vitiated by false methods of analysis and are 

1 See Bernstein, " Voraussetzungen des Socialismus," pp. 46 et seq. 



CONCLUSION 327 

therefore unreliable. The great mass of the people of 
all classes read these things as interesting comments of 
the day, but naturally draw no serious conclusions from 
them. 

The proposition so strongly urged by the early 
writers that the state regulate marriages is to-day being 
agitated. That criminality, insanity, mendicity, and 
physical defects might become less frequent did society 
more closely guard the institution of the family, is the 
hope of many, both scientists and laymen. While the 
movement has gone no farther yet than medical con- 
ferences and radical legislatures, it still exists, and a lack 
of confidence in the law of natural selection obtains 
in many minds. It is an illustration of the persistence 
of that happy optimism which marked the prerevo- 
lutionary times whose culmination is seen in the radical 
action of the French Revolution. 

It only remains to restate those doctrines dominant 
before the Revolution which have been applied to some 
extent since. As has been said, prerevolutionary so- 
cialism had few definite theories on which to advance. 
From abstract reasoning on one hand and observation 
of primitive man on the other, there developed the 
theory of a state of nature and of natural rights. This 
notion played a large part both in social and political 
radicalism up to the French Revolution. Since that 
time the theory has been gradually abandoned, until 



328 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

to-day few definitely declare for the doctrine. It is, 
however, unconsciously adhered to by radical theorists. 
All advocates of the destruction of property rights are 
aiming for a return to primitive man and natural society. 
Every proposition to disturb the monogamous family, 
either directly or by attacking those institutions on 
which it seems to depend, has as a logical result a 
return to a state of nature. For, as Spencer points out, 
the distinction between lower and higher forms of life 
grows through the process of superorganic evolution. 
The development of institutions means the departure 
from barbarism. In the same direction is the tendency 
to limit luxury and reduce wants to primary wants. 
This means a return to nature and to activities which 
respond to the natural appetites. 

The doctrine of the right to subsistence which played 
so important a part before the Revolution has vastly 
changed as time has gone on. The radical claims of 
labor to certain rights, either to labor or to support, has 
given way to a demand for a more equitable scheme of 
distribution which would give to all a competency. To 
the modern problems of poverty, unemployment, and 
indigence all classes seem inclined to bring the aid of 
rational charity; and to the conflict of interests grow- 
ing out of modern society, the reconciling spirit of a 
larger philanthropy. 

To the early theory that environment is a most 



CONCLUSION 329 

fruitful cause of evil, modern times gives ever readier 
assent. Countless evidences seen in the treatment 
of criminals, of insane, and of paupers and of those 
activities to rid society of dangerous influences show a 
growing consciousness of social responsibility. Along 
with this develops the idea of man's worth and of 
his possibilities. Many of the educational ideas of 
the early writers have to-day been realized, and the 
opportunities for culture have been vastly extended. 

Socialism has passed through three stages correspond- 
ing in a way to Comte's threefold classification of the 
progress of thought; the religious or romantic, the 
critical, and the scientific. The romantic period here 
discussed was marked by idealism both in the realm of 
social and of political thought. Though far less active 
in the former than in the latter, it has not been fruitless. 
Certainly the dreamers of the past have not lived in 
vain. Those who caught visions of the city beautiful 
and a regenerated society, and through them revealed 
the social possibilities of mankind, have had their 
mission. Nor is a material realization of these dreams 
necessary. There is a social idealism. There is a 
Utopian attitude of mind. There is an optimism, 
which, transforming the world in the ideal, helps to 
transform it in the real. Into this lofty sphere of con- 
templation Plato moved and gave the world the "Re- 
public." The Christian Fathers partook of this hope 



330 SOCIALISM BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

and pictured and tried to realize the kingdom of God 
on earth. Mediaeval asceticism hoped to solve the 
problem of a happy life by the doctrine and practice of 
a sublime self-abnegation. The humanists, beginning 
with Thomas More, combined the elements of both 
Greek and Christian culture and pictured a society ruled 
neither by the voluptuous luxury of the one nor by the 
austere stoicism of the other. From the gloom and 
disappointment of the French Revolution reformers 
again took refuge in the Utopia of social bliss with Saint- 
Simon and Fourier, as philosophy had done in the 
idealism of Hegel and politics with Fichte. 

Into the world of modern thought from a variety of 
sources have come the influences of the spirit of political 
optimism and social idealism. These are the corrective 
and cohesive forces in society. There arises in conflict 
with these, from the experience and observation of the 
hard facts of economic life, the spirit of individual 
unrest, of philosophical cynicism, and of social hopeless- 
ness, — destructive forces in social life. Men naturally 
partake of this spirit of optimism in vastly differing 
degrees. In most cases, however, it preserves them 
from seeing the world with a jaundiced eye, " to which all 
order festers, all things here are out of joint." It is not 
the least of the virtues of the prerevolutionary writers 
that they portrayed the possibilities of a regenerated 
society and thus furthered the spirit of optimism. As a 



CONCLUSION 331 

chief means to a realization of these hopes they em- 
phasized the need of a higher spiritual development for 
all the members of society. Thus the capacities of all 
were to be ennobled and expanded. 

This is the deeper intent of the thought of the human- 
ist — Thomas More ; it gives practical significance to 
the occult teachings of Campanella, forms the sub- 
stance of the doctrines of Bacon, and is the foundation 
of the optimism of Morelly. The prerevolutionary 
doctrine, "To each according to his wants, from each 
according to his capacity," is a lofty concept of social 
relationships when, through proper economic adjust- 
ment, both wants and capacities are to be infinitely 
elevated and enlarged. Realizing as these writers did 
the power of desire and motive as social forces, they 
have shown the possibilities of a society where the 
one has been ennobled and rationalized, and the 
other has been broadened and humanized. Beyond 
this teaching few socialist writers have gone; up to it 
few have come. It is in harmony with such doctrine 
that the individual can realize his own highest worth, 
and that society can realize from him the truest service. 



INDEX 



Academic nature of early socialism, 
34; its transformation to a 
laboring man's movement, 34. 

Age of Discovery, its influence on 
social theory, 253; use made of 
primitive peoples by Swift, 36; 
influence on Thomas More, 36; 
origin of the romance of travel, 

35- 
Agrarian Law, Babeuf's attack on 

it, 293. 
Agrarian Socialism early dominant, 

44, 264. 
Anarchism defined, 16; its relation 

to socialism, 16-17; comparison 

with democracy, 16; practical 

tendencies of, 16. 
Aristotle, theory of social evolution 

of, 19; his relation to the "lais- 

sez-fairists," 20; influence on 

later thought, 144. 
Arnold of Brescia, an Italian 

socialist, 133. 
Asceticism, decline of, 88-90 ; influ- 
ence of asceticism on classes, 

88-89. 
Augustine, Saint, "The City of 

God," 65; his relation to More, 

63. 

Babeuf, facts of his life, 289-290; 
his relation to the radicals, 290, 
294; writings of, 292; commun- 
ism of, 291, 293; his attack on 
society, 296; optimism of, 295; 
his theory of a class-conflict, 
295-296. 

Bacon, notice of his life, 183; rela- 
tion to Campanella, 184; "New 
Atlantis" of, 183, 185; social 
teachings of, 184; materialistic 
tendencies of, 186. 



Bamave, character of, 306; debt 
of socialism to, 307; environ- 
ment theory of, 308; his doctrine 
of progress, 309 ; economic factor 
emphasized, 308; his theory of 
social origins, 309; property 
theory of, 309; a precursor of 
Frederick List, 311; his theory 
of the Revolution, 312-313; his 
relation to Marx, 307; his 
theory of inequality, 310. 

Beaurieu, a forerunner of Rousseau, 
198. 

Bebel, a radical socialist, 323. 

Behn, Mrs., theory of, "Le bon 
sauvage," 36, 219; influence on 
Rousseau, 219. 

Bismarck and socialism, 323. 

Bodin, a political idealist, 138. 

Boissel, notice of his life, 283; 
property theory of, 284; his 
theory of distribution, 286; at- 
tack upon culture, 286; his 
opinion of Rousseau, 287; his 
relation to Morelly, 288. 

Campanella, authorities on his life, 
134-135; his place in history of 
socialism, 136, 187; intellectual 
environment of, 137; comparison 
with More, 1 39-141; scientific 
method of, 142; his attitude 
toward Aristotle, 144-145, 179; 
general philosophy of, 145, 148- 
149 ; his theory of social harmony, 
150, 190; his sympathy with 
Plato, 151, 170; Campanella 
and Bacon compared, 152; his 
debt to the Jesuits, 152, 159; 
cosmopolitan nature of, 161; 
his relations to the Papal See, 
162, 188; political theory of, 165, 



333 



334 



INDEX 



175; communism of, 168, 189; 
theory of the family, 170, 178; 
his means to social unity, 177, 
179; economic theories of, 191- 
192; his relation to Harrington, 
165, 189; his importance as a 
philosopher, 192. 

Capital, growth of industrial, 44, 
47, 77-78; and labor exploita- 
tion, 78. 

Capitalistic period, beginnings of, 
68, 77-78. 

Chappius, a contemporary of Lin- 
guet, 198. 

Christian Fathers, teachings of, 
39; optimism of, 329. 

Chronology of socialistic schools, 39. 

Cicero, his theory of primitive man, 

65. 

City-state, advocated by More, 128; 
fitness for a scheme of socialism, 
30; spread of modern municipal 
socialism, 321; Campanella's 
theory of, 174. 

Clark's theory of distribution, 14. 

Class-conflict, opening of, 41, 70; 
effect of great plague on, 69-70; 
relation to socialism, 31-32, 316. 

Class-consciousness awakened in 
England, 69; evidences of, in 
France, 276, 296. 

Class-solidarity, causes leading to, 
31, 72-73. 

Class-struggle, opening of, 41, 320; 
discussed by French radicals, 
276; Boissel discusses the, 283; 
Babeuf gives causes of, 295. 

Colet quoted by More, 56. 

Collectivism defined, 13, 15; com- 
pared with socialism, 15; of 
Pecqueur and Vidal, 41; of 
Morelly, 264. 

Communism, definition of, 11, 259; 
advantages of, in, 291; based 
upon philanthropy, 15; relation 
to socialism, n; More's attitude 
to, 106; Bacon's theory of, 186; 
Campanella a moderate, 169; 
social changes it presupposes, 260 ; 
compared with orthodox eco- 



nomics, 12; of the French Revo- 
lution, 277-278, 291. 

Communistic experiments, 324-325. 

" Conspicuous waste" lacking under 
socialism, 28; luxury theory of 
More, 122. 

Crimes, causes of, discussed by More, 
102 ; irresponsibility of the crimi- 
nal, 103; relation of property to, 
104; de Maistre's theory of, 104; 
of the French Revolution, 281. 

Democracy and Communism com- 
pared, 259. 

Democracy, its effect on radical 
socialism, 322. 

Division of labor and socialism, 318; 
More's theory of, 113, 115, 123; 
theory of Plato concerning, 113. 

D'Holbach, theories of, 200, 207. 

D'Holbach, theory of sensational 
knowledge, 234. 

Economic interpretation of history, 
31-33, 189; its debt to eighteenth- 
century thought, 33, 205, 211; 
Ferraz quoted on this, 210. 

"Economic Man," teachings of so- 
cialism on, 120, 182, 221. 

Economy of consumption, 45; its 
relation to communism, 45. 

Educational schemes of Morelly, 
271; his plan for technical 
schools, 272; he advocated public 
schools, 272; Jesuits and Cam- 
panella on, 156. 

Enclosures and the social unrest in 
England, 74; their effects upon 
labor, 79; "Boke of Surveying" 
on, 80, 97; effects on rent and 
prices, 81, 97 ; an extension of prop- 
erty-right, 54; and the industrial 
revolution, 78; More on their 
evils, 94-96; relation to com- 
munism, 83; rate of enclosures, 
75; attempts at remedy, 81- 
82, 99. 

Engels, contribution to history of 
socialism, 4. 

English revolution compared with 



INDEX 



335 



the French, 223-225; absence of 
socialistic tendencies, 225. 

Environment theory of evil, 26, 29, 
143; a feature of socialism, 26; 
Barnave's theory of, 308; Mo- 
relly's theory, 256; Owen's use 
of it, 256; modern aspects of, 
328-329. 

Erasmus concerning More, 56. 

Evolutionary notions absent in early 
socialism, 219, 222. 

Evolution and socialism, 315. 

Family, More's theory of, 112, 124; 
its connection with property, 113, 
170; as a basis for social unity, 
177; Plato's theory of, 177; size 
of family discussed, 123; control 
by the state, 123, 171; Cam- 
panula's theory of, 170; theory 
of Morelly on, 271; teachings of 
Boissel on, 287-288; theory of 
Saint- Just, 298; present attitude 
toward, 326; Saint-Just on, 298. 

Fitzherbert, writings of, 2. 

Foxwell quoted, 23. 

Franck, writings of, 3, 6. 

Friendship as a basis of social unity 
178-179; theory of Aristotle dis- 
cussed, 179; accepted by Cam- 
panella, 179. 

George, land theory of, 14, 326; 
Babeuf on land-holding, 294. 

"Goodness" theory of man stated, 
219, 232; its importance for the 
social idealist, 232; relation to 
doctrine of innate ideas, 219; 
revolutionary nature of, 237; as 
held by French radicals, 233, 235; 
Morelly' s use of, 252; the new 
basis of, 236. 

Grotius, theory of international law, 
86; theory of property, 239. 

Griinberg on radicalism in France, 



Harrington, compared with Cam- 
panula, 165. 
Helvetius, place among the French 



radicals, 198; his theory of 
goodness, 233-234; materialism 
of, 208; his theory of happiness, 
234; state of nature theory, 214; 
theory of knowledge, 233; pleas- 
ure and pain theory of, 208-209. 

Historical economics of Knies and 
Roscher, 257. 

History and Socialism, 225-227; 
Ihering quoted on, 226. 

History disregarded by radicals, 
215, 256; unhistorical method of 
revolution, 53, 218; practical 
reasons for this, 217; "conjec- 
tural history" of eighteenth cen- 
tury, 216; Jowett quoted on this, 
222. 

Hobbes, theory of state of nature of, 
237; property theory of, 241. 

Humanism of More, 91; its influ- 
ence on social ideals, 88, 320. 

Hume quoted on social harmony, 
231. 

Huss and the Bohemian revolt, 89; 
"Articles of the Peasants," 99, 
100; failure of revolt, 134. 

Idealism, its value in society, 329. 

Ihering quoted on history and social- 
ism, 226. 

Individualism, growth of, since 
Reformation, 2^; in sphere of 
economic life, 108, 319; its rela- 
tion to property, 8^ ; pleasure and 
pain, philosophy of, 211. 

Insurrectionary Committee, theories 
of property, 294; its relation to 
Babeuf, 292. 

International socialism, its origin, 
48; causes of its failure, 317, 
320 ; conditions leading to, 45-46 ; 
doctrines of Adam Smith, 47; 
suggested by early writers, 164. 

Italy, social theories in, 132. 

Janet, works cited, 3. 

Jaures on radical socialism, 277. 

Jesuits, their relation to Cam- 
panella, 153; communistic state 
in Paraguay, 153, 155; outline 



336 



INDEX 



of their plan, 155; family theory 
of, 157; comparison of theories 
with those of Campanella, 158. 

Kant's faith in democracy, 217. 
Kautsky on Thomas More, 6. 

Labor day, length of by More, 115- 
116; socialistic theory of, 167; 
advantages of short day, 117; 
Campanella on, 168; treated by 
Morelly, 265. 

Labor-theory of Campanella, 167, 
173, 181; of Morelly, 262; divi- 
sion of labor and socialism, 318. 

" Laissez-fairists' " theory, 19, 20. 

Landlordism, condemned by More, 
100; its relations to single-tax, 
326. 

Lassalle, theories of, 14. 

Latimer's Sermons, 2. 

Leisure class, attacked by More, 118; 
enlarged upon by Campanella, 
172; theory of Saint- Just on, 
299-300. 

Leroux, writings of, 2. 

Lichtenberger, writings of, 4; his 
theory of French Revolution, 282. 

Linguet, a radical socialist, 197; 
theory of property of, 304-305; 
importance of, 304. 

Locke, state of nature theory, 213; 
property theory of, 52, 238. 

Mably, place of, in economic his- 
tory, 300, 302; writings of, 301; 
property theory of, 302 ; analytic 
method of, 303; importance to 
socialism, 303. 

Machiavellian school, More opposed 
to, 86; theory of social life, 91; 
its theory of absolutism, 129. 

Malon, works of, 3. 

"Manifesto" of Karl Marx, 47; 
its radical nature, 24, 41. 

"Man of Nature" theory stated by 
Pufendorf, 25. 

Marriage, theory of Campanella, 
178; theory of Plato, 1 71-172; 
Bacon's theory of, 185; modern 



notions on, 327; Boissel's teach- 
ings on, 288; Saint-Just discusses 
theory of, 298. 

Marx, unites old and new socialism, 
7, 22, 319; originator scientific 
socialism, 41, 42; his "Inter- 
national," 47. 

Materialism and eighteenth-century 
socialism, 205, 207, 210. 

1 ' Materialistic interpretation ' ' of 
history, 205; its origin, 204; use 
of theory of class-struggle, 32; 
absence of class-conflict in the 
earlier period, 33; teachings of 
Barnave on, 311. 

Menger cited, 5. 

Mercier, a defender of the old order, 
203 ; his conflict with Mably, 300. 

Meslier, life notice, 243; his con- 
demnation of property, 243; a 
forerunner of Voltaire, 243; his 
relation to socialism, 244. 

Metaphysics of eighteenth century 
basis for social theories, 204; 
Campanella, emphasis of, 147. 

Militarism, attitude of socialism to, 
105. 

Mill, socialist tendencies of, 13. 

Mohl, von, writings of, 2. 

Monopolies, condemned by More, 
98. 

Montesquieu's theory of labor, 48. 

More, Thomas, life of, 54, 55 ; place 
in England, 55; associates of, 56; 
literary ability of, 59; sources of 
his thought, 61, 63; a social 
student, 77; reactionary nature 
of, 82; his attitude toward the 
Reformation, 84; he favors the 
New Learning, 84; apparent 
inconsistency of, 86; his attitude 
toward asceticism, 91 ; humanism 
of, 102, 121; conservatism of , no, 
115; his relation to Malthus, 125 ; 
he anticipates Ricardo, 126; his 
importance for socialism, 129. 

Morelly, facts concerning his life, 
195; writings of, 199; his im- 
portance to later socialism, 196, 
250; method of, 197, 248; his 



INDEX 



337 



two views of society, 249; theory 
of origin of evil, 255-256, 258; 
he denies theory of innate ideas, 
251; theory of "fall of man," 
254; his crucial question, 250; 
his attitude toward history, 256; 
social motives discussed, 261 ; 
his new "social unit," 262; he 
condemns property, 257; general 
estimate of, 273-274; political 
ideas of, 268; importance of his 
social theory, 258; his theory of 
social organization, 268-269. 

Motives, in proposed system, 28, 
no; discussed by Campanella, 
180; arise from fitness of em- 
ployment to capacity and inclina- 
tion, 180; theory of Morelly 
concerning, 261 ; social instincts 
as a source of, 263; Fourier's 
theory of, 181, 263. 

Municipal socialism and early 
ideals, 320. 

National workshops in France, 52; 
lessons taught by, 44. 

"Natural rights" doctrine, 211, 249; 
statements of, in age of Morelly, 
212, 215; right to labor based 
upon, 52; involves right to sub- 
sistence, 284; nature of the 
theory in France, 213; present 
standing of, 327. 

Non-productive labor, absent under 
socialism, 117; More's theory of, 
119. 

Optimism of eighteenth century, 29, 
227, 300; principles on which it 
rested, 29, 228; nature of this 
optimism, 229; advocates of, 
229; reconciliation of public and 
private interests, 230, 231; need 
of optimism in society, 330. 

Owen, Robert, environment theory 
of, 256. 

Peixotto cited on economic aspect 
of society, 315; contribution to 
history of socialism, 5. 



Physiocrats, theory of, 19. 

Plague, the, its effects on social 
classes, 70. 

Plato, theory of social control, 17, 
19; relation to Aristotle, 19; 
influence over More, 64; in- 
tellectual father of socialists, 64; 
outgrowth of his theory, 20; 
optimism of, 329. 

Pleasure and pain theory, of More, 
121; of French radicals, 211; its 
logical conclusions, 211, 273-274. 
"Polizei-staat," German idea of, 
91; More's idea of, 91. 

Population, theory of More, 124- 
125; comparison of More and 
Malthus, 125; overpopulation 
not a socialist doctrine, 126; Bar- 
nave on dynamics of increasing 
population, 309. 

Possibilities of socialism, 255. 

Profits, condemned by More, 100. 

Property, its relation to individual- 
ism, 108; a historical fact, 27, 29, 
107, 284; justification of, in 
"natural rights" and social utility 
theories, 109; theories before the 
Revolution, 242; Locke quoted 
on, 238; Pufendorf quoted on, 
240; Hobbes theory of property, 
241 ; Meslier denies property- 
right, 243; theory of Rousseau, 
244-245; Mably on property- 
right, 302 ; effect of French Revo- 
lution on, 278; stability of, 325- 
326; modern attitude to, 325; 
Grotius, theory of, 239; Babeuf 
discusses its evils, 293. 

Property theory of labor, Locke's 
statement of, 52. 

Proudhon, definition of political 
economy, 9; of socialism, 10, 323. 

Pufendorf, the state of nature, 25. 

Race- problem and socialism, 320- 

321- 
Radicalism in France, 202, 276; 
in how far was it socialistic, 277, 
279, 297; its tendency toward the 
theories of Morelly, 279. 



338 



INDEX 



Radical socialism, climax of, 43; 
decline of, in France, 13; in 
Germany, 12. 

Reactionary nature of socialism, 82, 
188. 

Reformation, socialism after, 23- 
24; attitude of More toward, 
84-85. 

Revolutionary thought, its three 
prerequisites, 68. 

Reybaud, writings of, 2, 4. 

"Right to labor" theory, when ad- 
vanced, 49; its relation to right 
to subsistence, 49. 

"Right to subsistence," its early 
appearance, 49; communism its 
logical conclusion, 49; Locke's 
theory of, 50; relation to com- 
pulsory labor, 51; modern 
changes in, 328. 

Rodbertus, a scientific socialist, 94. 

Romance of Travel, a source of 
social ideals, 35, 61. 

Romantic age of socialism, 38; 
causes of the romance, 35 ; influ- 
ence of travel, 35, 61. 

Rousseau, social theories of, 245; 
not a communist, 244; says 
property is a necessary evil, 247; 
writings of, 200 ; compared with 
Locke, 245. 

Saint- Just, theory of the family, 
298; advocates public care of 
children, 298; theory of property 
of, 299; on right of inheritance, 
299 ; condemns evils of idle class, 
299. 

Savigny, theory of social control, 
226. 

Sceptical philosophy and social 
theory, 203. 

School of socialism, lines of unity 
in, 21, 39. 

Schultze-Delitzsch, a reformer, 41 ; 
his controversy with Lassalle, 14. 

Scientific Socialism, origin of, 42, 
147; Karl Marx father of, 43; 
comparison with Utopian school, 
10, 42. 



Seebohm, writings of, 5 ; quoted on 
More, 56. 

Slavery, Campanella theory of, 167. 

Slavery, Campanella on, 158, 167, 
173- 

Smith, A., beginnings of cosmo- 
politan economics, 47. 

Social compact, right to labor a re- 
sult of, 52; held by Morelly, 270. 

Social Democracy, outlook for, 322. 

Socialism, definition of, 7, 9, 267; 
a lower-class movement, 8, 21; 
relation to communism, 11, 15; 
compared with orthodox eco- 
nomics, 12; and justice, 15; 
its philosophy of life, 20, 30, 146; 
reactionary tendencies in, 82, 188; 
debt to early writers, 44 ; its rela- 
tion to materialism, 42-43, 147; 
possibilities of, 255; new prob- 
lems of, 316; despotic tendencies 
of early, 26-27, I2 9- 

"Socialism of the chair" a reaction, 

3 2 3- 
Socialization and socialism, 45-46; 
early tendencies toward, 47; 
influences of industrial capital on, 

47- 
"Societe des Egaux," teachings of, 

290; its organ, Tribune du 

Peuple, 290; relation to Babeuf, 

291. 
Star key, Dialogues of, 2. 
"Statute of Laborers," purposes of, 

71; foreshadows rise of classes, 76. 
Stein, contribution of, 2. 
"Surplus- Value" theory, a basic 

principle of scientific socialism, 

13, 14, 21. 

Tacitus, student of primitive man, 
62. 

Telesius, the inspirer of Campa- 
nella, 138. 

Trades-unions and socialism, 324. 

Tribune du Peuple y theories taught 
in, 290. 

"Utopia," first appearances of, 57; 
translation of, 57; sources of 



INDEX 



339 



thought, 61, 65-67; compared 
with Plato's "Republic," 64; 
opinions of contemporaries con- 
cerning, 58-59; its value as 
history, 59 ; the best and earliest 
romance of travel, 63. 
Utopian socialism, its unhistorical 
view point, 218; compared with 
scientific, 10, 221-222, 319; its 
constructive method, 171, 201; 
periods dominated by, 40. 

Veblen on the optimism of Smith,23o. 
Virchow and the theory of evolution, 

226, 315. 
Volney, a neglected writer, 231; 



teachings on social concord, 231; 
optimism of, 231. 

Wage-problem in time of More, 81. 

Wants, primary ones as lasting 
motive to industry, 120; chances 
of their satisfaction under social- 
ism, 120; theory to solve social 
problem by reducing number of, 
119. 

Wealth, More's teachings concern- 
ing, 119, 127; problem of poverty 
a relative one, 120; Moreliy's 
classification of, 266. 

Woman, place of, in More's scheme, 
US- 



" Socialism grew to be a very important question during the 
nineteenth century ; in all probability it will be the supreme ques- 
tion of the twentieth." — T. K. 



A History of Socialism 

By THOMAS KIRKUP 
Third Edition, revised and enlarged 

Cloth, 8vo, 400 pages and index, $2.25 net 

" The aim of the present book is twofold : to set forth the lead- 
ing phases of historic socialism ; and to attempt a criticism and 
interpretation of the movement as a whole." — T. K. 



COMMENTS OF THE PRESS 

u Unquestionably the best study of Socialism in the English 
language . . . of the utmost value." — Manchester Guardian. 

" A book which should be on the shelves of every public library 
and every workingman's club." — Pall Mall Gazette, London. 

" The chapter on the growth of Socialism has been completely 
rewritten in order to bring it up to date. . . . He is singularly free 
from the exaggerated statement and declamatory style which 
characterize the writing of so many socialists, and the concluding 
pages of the present volume show him at his best. . . . None have 
surpassed Mr. Kirkup in philosophical grasp of the essentials of 
Socialism or have presented the doctrine in more intelligible 
form." — The Nation. 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Sixty-four and Sixty-six Fifth Ave., New York 



OTHER WORKS ON SOCIALISM 



By JOHN SPARGO 

Socialism 

A Summary and Interpretation of Socialist Principles 

i2tno, Cloth, $1.25 net 

" The i man in the street ' will find this little volume an up-to- 
date exposition of the Socialism that is alive in the world to-day." 

— Review of Reviews. 

" Anything of Mr. Spargo's is well worth reading, for it is 
written with conviction and with a sense of concrete life far re- 
moved from mere doctrinairism. . . . Anybody who wants to know 
exactly what the American Marxian of the saner sort is aiming at 
will find it here. In view of the present situation it is a book 
that every thoughtful person will want to read and read carefully." 

— World To-Day. 

By JACK LONDON 

War of the Classes 

By the Author of " The People of the Abyss,' ' etc. 

Cloth, $1.50 net, paper, 25 cts. net 

" A series of correlated essays, direct and trenchant in style, 
fresh and vigorous in thought, and . . . exceedingly entertaining 
in manner." — New York Sun. 

By GUSTAV LeBON 

The Psychology of Socialism 

By the Author of " The Crowd/ ■ etc. 

Cloth, 8vo 9 $3.00 net 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Sixty-four and Sixty-six Fifth Ave., New York 



JUN 10 1907 



